Fic of the Dead
by Hiro Sabreheim
Summary: This Au basically follows the story line up until it's hiatus and fills in somethings I thought should've been mentioned. As well as using an OC character to fill in a gap or two in what I felt was lacking in the protagonist early on. Feel free to drop suggestions on the best way to continue it or whatnot.
1. Chapter 1

(Author's Note: Please note that this is my first attempt at a semi-serious fanfiction, I'd compare it to taking a sea voyage where you keep the coastline in sight. So don't be too rude or nasty in the reviews. I'm well aware that this work has some (glaring?) flaws in it and the pairings aren't what people are going to like. But it's my work and it's how I wanted to do it. so there.)

Z-day, as it would end up being called, the day when the world went to hell. The day "they" showed up at the school's front gate. Takashi burst into the classroom spouting off about something going on at the gate. Deciding it'd be a better idea to go with them than to remain at the school

"What the hell man?" The young man nicknamed Zero asked as they got to the breezeway of the school. Takashi explained the situation as he understood it, but after Hizashi ended up being bitten shortly thereafter things quickly spiralled downhill. After their harrowing escape to the upper roof where the supplies for the clubs were kept, along with the obervatory.

"Dammit. Hizashi you don't look good." Zero said, looking over at his friend; noticing how pale he was looking and the way he was coughing.

Not too much longer after that , maybe an hour or two with the stairway as secure as they could make it; Hizashi was going quickly. Trying to keep the rest of them out of the loop on it by suffering...dying quietly. He'd start to request that Takashi pitch him over the four-story drop the ground. With Takashi not budging in his indecision and Rei still freaking out over it; Zero stepped up.

"Ugh, Komuro, be a man." Raizen muttered and stood up from where he was sitting. "I"ll do it man. no worries." he reassured Hizashi and walked over to help him over in that direction.

"NO! You can't! Hizashi isn't dying, he'll be fine!" Rei shouted.

"Move aside Miyamoto." Raizen growled at her, annoyed with her panic.

"No!" She replied in a resolute tone. Only to get pushed aside by him as he helped Hizashi toward the railing.

Takashi finally got moving and held Rei back, seeing the necessity of it. It was the honorable thing to do right? Their mutual friend was moments from turning when Raizen gave him the final shove over the railing, though he didn't watch. But the boneshattering CRACK on the concrete below chilled everyone to the core. But at least it made Miyamoto shut up in the horror of the moment.

Though once it passed, she'd explode on Zero for it, shouting at him that the act was murder. He countered with that it had been their friend's final request. Given the situation he believed that doing it had been the right thing to do so that HIzashi could die as himself: a real human being.

The trio knew what was really going on here - Fujimi had gone to hell and; judging by the view they had, everywhere had too. Great, but now the question was that: "Is there anyone else who survived?" And "How do we get out of here?" The second question was easy- jump or climb down. Yeah, end up splattered like a pancake if you slipped; so that was a no go.

After a about ten, fifteen at most, minutes of consideration and observation; the three would force their way off the roof and back into the academy to try and find others and get to the front gates. At least they were armed- Takashi with a baseball bat, Rei with a broken off broom handle with a point on it serving as a primitive spear (IE pointy stick), and Raizen with a wooden sword stolen from an open hallway locker. After some intense moments of bashing zombies around and rescuing a screaming classmate; they'd end up in the faculty room with 4 others.

But what just made things seem worse was the newscast that was on the TV, at least something was functional. Showing that this shit was happening all over the world; Saya and the nurse Marikawa were speculating about the pandemic and how long it might. Worst case: it never ended until mankind was entirely extinct.

"So. We're totally screwed. Great, well first thing we gotta do is get the hell out of here. This place is a goddamn deathtrap now." Raizen muttered after he heard what everyone else was thinking and pitched in with that himself.

But that seemed to be the total conclusion everyone had already come to, there was no other option. With the limited resources to make such a thing possible; they'd opt to use the school's minibus that the athletic teams used for away games. The best way to get through; and the way they were all trying to stick to was that of stealth. Moving through the school as quietly as possible after Saya revealed how the "they" reacted to sound more than sight. But things quickly went bad when they had to jump in to save other students that were pinned in on a landing of the stairs.

In the haste to escape from there through the doors, one of them accdentally smacked his makeshift weapon on the railing that echoed throughout the area. Which triggered what would amount to mad dash/stampede for the minibus; at least it was a straight line. The only way there was through the mass of gathering undead; but since they were a bit on the slow side it was easy to get through them if you kept moving. Once everyone who survived was on... "Jesus, that's a fucking lot of those damn things. Crank this thing up and let's go!"

But unfortunately, Takashi wanted to wait for another small group of survivors to get onboard; Shidou and his students. It seemed like a bad idea; both Rei and Raizen hated Shidou for different reasons. Zero thought that Shidou was a megalomaniac with aspirations that weren't good for anyone other than himself. On top of that one of the group he brought with him decided to try and start shit with Komuro once they were on the road; adding to an an already tense situation. But amusingly enough, Rei would step in and hit the guy in the gut with that broomhandle to make him shut up.

Once Shidou started spouting some bullshit about leadership and the necessity to band together (Under HIS banner.) It was annoying but wasn't really anything to get re-worked up over. Raizen was in the seat across the aisle from the kendo captain Busujima and behind Hirano and Takashi. "He's starting to get on my nerves..." He muttered, eliciting a bit of a snort of amusement from Hirano.

But his continued ranting boiled MIyamoto's pot and soon enough she and Komuro would jump ship; with the idiot girl leading the way. At least Takashi was trying to be sensible and keep everyone together. But they'd get cut off from the others thanks to an out of control city bus that overturned and would promptly explode after it blocked the tunnel they'd took cover in. "Holy crap I hope they're ok!" Raizen exclaimed, seeing the crash from the door after Busujima had jumped out to eliminate the walkers that were flaming and shuffling int heir direction before collapsing, fully dead.

Meet them at the East Police Station huh? Well at least everyone left here had a direction; and that wasn't with the idiot blathering in the back of the bus. Raizen grumbled, now having moved up to sit across from Hirano and Takagi. "Damn Shidou's starting to grate on my nerves, does he ever shut up?"

"I don't really think so..." Hirano muttered quietly.

"Yeah really. it's like he's tryin to establish hiw own little cult." Saya responded in the same annoyed tone.

"More like trying to justify his desire to screw those girls back there that're all hanging on his everyword..." Raizen muttered angrily.

"Want me to shut him up?" Hirano asked, arming his nail gun with the intent to do just what he said.

"Don't bother." Saya sighed and began to speculate; as if to keep their thoughts focused on something constructive. But as it got later and later; the entire group ended up dozing off in their seats since they'd gotten stuck in the traffic trying to cross Onbetsu Bridge.

Morning would come and Shidou was at it again, had the idiot been going all freaking night?! "Seriously someone needs to shut that guy up." Raizen muttered.

"Maybe we don't have to. Look outside." Saeko replied, nodding out the window to point out how people were now walking to try and get across. "It might be better if we got off and walked from here."

"Then let's do that. " Saya agreed after waking Hirano up.

"Oh thank god. If we stick around anymore I'm going to bury this thing in Shidou's skull, dead or not." Raizen grumbled, he hadnt' slept well because of that and it showed.

Saeko looked like she was trying not to laugh at that for a moment; she'd probably been thinking the same thing in the dark corners of her mind. It would be agreed and the group of them started for the exit with Marikawa joining them with the guys covering the girls out of instinct almost. But, like a true sleaze, Shidou tried to stop them; attempting to convince Marikawa to stay; claiming it was a blow to the group's morale if the doctor left. What was bad was that he was barely concealing the true, more lecherous, reasons.

There was almost no real thought to it, it was like a hair trigger reaction of two dudes that'd just had enough of this bull. Hirano shooting one of those nails at Shidou's head, whizzing past close enough to burn the man's cheek while Raizen had assumed a quick stance with the point of the wooden sword aimed at his forehead. All it would take was one hard thrust to shatter the front plate of the skull and cause lethal brain damage. "If you're going, now's the time." Hirano told the girls. "Yeah he isn't going to stop you now." Raizen smirked wickedly.

It semed for a moment like the chivalrous action had scored them both points with the girls. "You go man, I'll cover you." Hirano nodded to Raizen.

"Thanks." he said and bakced off and hopped off the bus followed by Hirano.

"Thanks you guys." the girls smiled for a moment though Saya looked like she didn't want say anything about it.

"Aww, it wasn't anything." Raizen muttered, embarrassed by his reaction still.

"We should get going." Takagi suggested, the rest following her lead. They'd try to get across the bridge on foot but it seemed like the police had broken out water cannons and set up barricades to limit the number of people that could pass at one time. They seemed intent on checking everyone for wounds that would signify that they were bitten and would soon turn. It became obvious there was no real way to get across here in a hurry.

After awhile of trying to find another way to get across the river, they'd get "jumped" by a group of "them" which would lead into a full-on battle against them. The melee fighers were doing most of the work since Hirano was starting to run short of nails to fire, Saeko doing an excellent job of keeping them away. Raizen pulled in close to help protect Hirano, Takagi and Marikawa at least long enough to clear enough room to get back to help Busujima.

"Sonuva...there's just so damn many of them. Where the hell did they come from?" Raizen shouted in frustration. Saeko and Raizen were both members of the kendo club, but the difference between them was obvious; Saeko was more finesse, grace and style; Raizen was more direct and elemental. They were capable though, able to hit hard and fast with skullcrushing force.

And just as things were turning bad, the calvary, as it were, arrived in the form of Takashi and Rei on a motorcyle, flying through the air after using a parked truck as a ramp. It was an impressive display of daring, that was for sure. But it did alleviate the problem with "them" by knocking the ones near Hirano, Takagi and Marikawa by knocking over the rail into the drink. Then giving Saeko enough momentum to take out the ones near her.

"Hah! You showoff." Zero laughed. "Thanks all the same man." All in all, being reunited like that was probably the best thing that happened here really. There had been tension thanks to the concern everyone had for the missing members of the group. Though after some discussion, Takashi and Shizuka left again to scout out the flat she'd been talking about so that they would have a place to go for the night.

Once they were gone, Raizen sat down in the grass of the embankment that lead down to the river and sighed, learning the wooden sword against his shoulder with the point in the ground. "Doesn't this situation just beat all? First all hell breaks lose and now there's literally no way to get out of it without swimming."

"It'll be alright. We just have to stick together." Hirano said. "But this airweight is awesome! Where'd you find it?"

"From a cop car that was in an accident last night." Miyamoto responded from nearby as she looked out toward the bridge, watching the hoards of people trying to get across and the parking lot of cars.

"Oh..." Hirano said, sounding a bit downcast about it. As it was a sad thing afterall; the cops were just doing their jobs.

"Well not much they can do until they get back..." Raizen sighed, glancing over at them. He stood back up and stretched out some. After some thought he grinned a bit as he glanced at the river. "We could always swim across, it's low tide now.."

"Are you crazy?!" Saya spouted loudly. "Don't you realize how stupid that would be?" she demanded. Saeko chuckled a bit at that, even Hirano and Miyamoto started to snicker too; getting the joke while Saya had taken it too seriously. Raizen had wanted to try and create some levity in the situation to give everyone a bit of a laugh.

"I just hope it's a good place...the doc was talking about." Hirano finally said, worried about the possible security of the location.

"Relax man. I"m sure it'll be fine." Raizen said. At least he'd be right, the place they'd be led to was a great place to stay for the night at long last. After a bit of concern if using such a place would really be alright with her friend, Shizuka reassured them that it would be; her friend wouldn't mind.

Inside it was alot better than anticipated- spacious and secure once they eliminated the walking corpses that were in the duplex. The girls going in for a bath while the guys were left to pry the gunsafe open, reaching the conclusion that there would be something in there from finding the ammunition. After some elbow grease and effort, they'd manage to break the damn thing open, which sent them faceplanting into the floor as the safe opened. The contents inside were much to Hirano's delight, he'd gleefully walk Takashi and Raizen through what each of the guns were and the basics of how to use them. Namely as they were busy loading the magazines with the ammo.

"So you did this with Airsoft guns?" Takashi laughed.

"No, with the real things." Hirano grinned maniacally. Which made Takashi take a step back, Raizen could hear them but he was out on the balcony with a pair of binoculars they'd found keeping an eye on what was going on.

"Holy shit really?" Takashi exclaimed.

"Yeah when I went to America. I trained with a former captain of Delta force for a month." Hirano grinned.

"Who knew...the class nerd is a cardcarrying member of the NRA..." Takashi said, in a slightly worried tone. "I"m glad we're on the same side.."

"Yeah~" Hirano agreed.

Raizen laughed from outside. "I take it now we have an instructor to teach us how to use them right." He called.

"Of course!" Hirano said, fistpumping in the air. "You should come in here too and pick out which one you prefer."

"In a bit. I may search the house a bit more for others if I can find them." He said, coming back in and handing the binoculars to Takashi. "Is that a crossbow? Holy crap I havent' seen one of those in real life before." Raizen said, picking it up carefully and examined it, turning it in his hands. "I have to admit, I like this thing."

"Good choice." Hirano approved. "It's silent and very deadly, That thing could even take down a bear."

"Though we'd really be better off with silenced pistols or something." Raizen said as Takashi stood up and headed to the balcony to keep watch.

"Oh of course!" Hirano agreed heartily. "But this is what we have to work with for now. We might find more later...I hope."

Raizen chuckled and continued to feel out the crossbow, how it weighed; how it felt when he held it. He knew that crossbows had small to no real recoil; but they were a pain to load quickly. He'd been in the archery club this year, (having been in the Kendo one for his freshman year. and Still praticed that regularly when he could.) "Dude, seriously though, I have to hand to you for the ingenuity to come up with that nailgun."

Hirano flushed at the praise, it wasn't something he was used to getting from his peers here. "Uh thanks..." He grinned. "It was the best I could do with what I had."

"Well it certainly worked. But I wager you feel better with a real gun in your hands." Raizen laughed.

"Damn right!" Hirano cackled.

"Too bad we can't really get anything that would make effective armor though." Raizen sighed, raking his fingers through his ivory white hair. That one feature made him stand out in comparison to everyone else. He had been born with partial albinism which made him unable to have any real hair color and his eyes were purple as a result of the blue iris being combined with the red blood that was close to the surface.

"Like metal? That wouldn't be any good, it'd be too heavy to use effectively. Beside it'd have to be specifically made for us." Hirano sighed. "But you're right, it would be a good thing to have but oh well." 

"Well I thought more like toughened leather or something. It'd be hard for them to get through; and could probably find it with geuine leather jackets or the like but it' d be so damn hot." he muttered, uncomfortable with the idea of that with how hot it's been.

"I got the rest of this." Hirano said as they were almost done loading all the ammo they had and put what didn't fit into the guns into ammo crates they found in the closet nearby. "You go ahead and look around for more if you want to. I'm not going anywhere. Go check on the girls too, poke your head in." He grinned.

"Uh yeah no. They'd probably kill me themselves." Raizen laughed.

"Probably but it'd be worth it!" Hirano said, giving a thumbs up.

For a bit Raizen would step out to check on Takashi to see how he was doing for the time being. "What do you see Komuro?" he asked.

"Most of it is concentrated around the bridge still. Apparently they're starting to riot or protest, something like that." He replied, offering the binoculars over. "Take look for yourself."

"?" Raizen did just that and looked over in that direction as well. Yeah it looked like something big was going on there but it seemed also like the dead were starting to get into that area in response. That wasn't going to be good. "Well as long as they stay over there we should be alright here."

Hirano came out at that point. "Shouldn't the girls quiet down some?"

"I wouldnt' worry, they can't hear us it seems. Or are paying more attention to what's going on at the bridge. Raizen handed Hirano the binoculars so that he could see it as well, it seemed like they'd be safe for the time being, that was a relief.

"I'm going to go have a look around." Raizen said, heading for the door to go back inside.

"Go ahead, it's a woman's place. should be stocked." Takashi glanced over.

'Yeah, you're right. It probably is safer to look around here than my original idea was." Raizen chuckled and raked his fingers through his hair, a nervous habit. "This staying idle in one place makes me kind of nervous, given the situation."

"It's cool, but we should use this chance to rest while we can." Hirano could understand the nervousness but felt it was unnecessary at the time. "Go ahead, we've got this; we'll let you you know if something changes."

Raizen nodded and headed through the condo, exploring the rooms and all the possible hiding places; searching for anything that might be useful. Mostly utilitarian items like flashlights, batteries, that sort of thing. His persistence in looking around, he'd find a smaller metal box hidden in a small cabinent. Unfortunately it was locked, but he did have a couple options and would attempt to pick it with a bobbypin and small screwdriver. It'd take a couple attempts but he'd only manage to break the pins he had. ...then found a key to it nearby on a small table in an ashtray. "...Ok I am officially an idiot." He muttered and got it open.

Inside would be an American-made Glock .9mm alongside a couple small boxes of ammo fot it. But this caliber was fairly common to find and if they thought to or had the chance to loot a gunshop or sports-equipments store they could probably find more fairly easily. "Sweet! Too bad there isn't a silencer for it. " He sighed, again another fairly common accessory but there just wasn't one here for it. On his way back and thanks to a bit more prodding around; he'd find a belt-attached holster for it that also sported a thigh clip to keep the thing in place. It wasn't precisely for it but it did fit well enough to be useful. To get the info on it and it's use he brought it back to HIrano.

"Where'd you find that?" The expert would ask, checking it out once Raizen showed it to him.

"In a security lockbox downstairs in a small cabinent near the door." He replied. "I imagine it's originally for emergencies or something. I"m fairly sure this situation counts."

"The question really is: do you know how to use it?" Hirano asked.

"Point and shoot?" Raizen grinned but had to shrug a bit, using a pistol was easy enough but Hirano didn't seem satisfied with that answer and would respond by explaining a bit more indepth about how to use it properly and the proper way to care for it.

Soon enough the girls would be finished with their collective bathing and they could be heard either getting dressed or poking around. The guys knew better than to go down and try to socialize to early on, that'd just result in injuries nobody would really need at the time. Taking turns keeping an eye out for trouble from balcony or simply sitting in the chair or layin gon the bed to relax some. AFterall it'd been fairly hectic day. "I'm going downstairs to try and find something to drink, you guys want something?" Raizen asked as he got up and headed for the door.

"Nah I'm alright for now." Takashi said, out on the balcony at the moment.

"I could use a soda if youfind one down there." Hirano perked up.

"Haha I'll look for one but you might have to settle for juice." Raizen laughed and exited, but as he got downstairs he'd run, visually, headlong into a nearly nude Saeko while she was preparing something for everyone to eat.

"Whoa! Uhm...sorry..." He muttered, averting his eyes to somewhere safer but blushed. "I didn't know you were...uhm..."

She let out an amused laugh, short and to the point. "It's cool, really... there wasn't anything in my size, so until the laundry is done..." She replied as she distastefully hooked her thumbs into the straps of the apron and pulled on it a little.

At that point he understood, necessity...but definately showy. "Well I suppose sometimes one must has to make due..."

Up to that point ,he'd been calling her by her surname out of respect but would be corrected by her at this point to call her by her first name. But he'd also offer to help prepare the food to distract himself from the fact that she was turning him on dressed like that dammit.

"No, it's alright. I got this, thanks for asking though." She smiled in response, either not noticing or not really caring at the moment. "You guys are keeping an eye out for us tonight, I really appreciate it." she gave him a direct look. "I'd really like to show my appreciation..." she trailed off and let the implication hang there, seeming to enjoy the fact it was making him sweat then broke it off with a more innocent topic.

"By the way, where did you learn to fight like you do? I've seen you at the kendo club a few times but you've had more than just a couple club lessons." She asked out curiosity.

"My dad used to play with me when I was kid like that then gave me more realistic lessons as I got older. " he shrugged. "he wasn't around much but when he was that's how we spent the time. I think it was just a hobby for him or something." Raizen replied with a momentarily distant expression.

"That's noble of you, trying to honor and preserve your family's style." Saeko grinned again.

"I wouldn't call it a style... not like it has a name..." Raizen muttered, pulling his fingers throug h his hair again. "Besides it just feels natural to do it by this point."

"It means you have a talent for it. It's good to know that someone else can handle themselves when the situation calls for it." Saeko replied, stirring the contents of the pot a little more. She kept cocking an eye at him as he leaned over to grab a drink from the fridge and search for what Hirano requested but came up short and instead got him a vitamin water. Normally he kept his longer hair in a nice ponytail and hit it down the back of his shirt as long hair on guys was frowned upon in school. But whil they were in the shower he'd pulled the tie out of it to just let it out for a bit and nwo it spilled out of his shirt and splayed over his shoulder in an avalanche of white. "That's certainly noticeable. What's up with the white hair. You bleach it out or something for the sake of being 'different?'" she asked.

He straightened for a moment and pulled it out of his eyes to look at her. "Oh? This?" he asked, rubbing a bit of it with his fingers. "It's a result of a genetic deficiency I have, partial albinism. I don't have any color in it at all. I think it's a just an unlucky result of two recessive genes pairing up." He shrugged and looked at her straight on so she could see the lavender-blue color of his eyes. "It also makes my eyes this color due to the red of my blood mixing with the natural pale blue of my irises."

"Interesting..." Saeko said as she turned to refocus on her task, blushing faintly as she did. "Is there anything else?" she asked, glancing back for a second.

"Er..no.. I thin it'd my turn to take watch..." Raizen replied and headed back upstairs, remembering to take the extra bottle up to Hirano.

"That took a while...everything alright?" Takashi asked.

"Nah everything's fine. I was just having a chat with Busujima for a moment." he replied offhandly. "that and I could swear I smelled alcohol in the air down there..."

Takashi looked at him with a raised brow. "She was drunk?" He asked.

"No, no but I think someone else might be... " Raizen shrugged and headed to the balcony, "Sorry man this was all she had." he said, handing the bottle to Hirano.

"Huh? Oh ..bummer, thanks anyway." Hirano accepted it and cracked it open. "Everything's still quiet up here. The focus is still on the bridge."

The rest of the time spent up there keeping an eye on everything was pretty quiet while Marikawa stumbled in on the two guys inside and proceeded to cause a bit of a scene in a fit of drunken hornyness it seemed. Raizen couldn't help but grin hearing Hirano and Takashi freaking out a bit in response- he wanted to stay out of it. But in a moment Hirano stumbled outside in a bit of a daze with star-filled eyes it seemed. "Dude...are you alright?" He asked, perking a brow. Inside Takashi had carried her off to put her to bed and was having a moment with Rei apparently judging by the voices.

"I like turtles..." HIrano muttered in response, still kind of out of it. Something had happened, going by his tone and the fact he was having a minor nosebleed. "Huh? Oh. I..I'm fine...I think..." He said and looked out and over the area. Things wouldn't stay quiet for too long as the commotion on the bridge was settling down which would mean "they" were starting to drift away from it and toward other sound sources.

"Huh? Uh oh... Not good..." he said and offered Hirano the binoculars. "Look for yourself, they're losing interest in what's going on over there..."

Instead of using the binoculars, Hirano was using the scope of his rifle to have a look then seemed to shift his focus to something going on closer to them. Noting the shift in his position, Raizen looked in that direction as well and saw what his friend had. "...Well that's not good." he quiped rhetorically.

Without a warning, Kouta began to open fire onthe walking dead that was closing in on the gates that they'd been focusing on. Having spotted a couple survivors trying to find help but were apparently shut out. The shots getting Takashi's attention and he'd show up on the balcony to see what was going on while Kouta was still picking them off.

"I thought you weren't going to shoot." he said, if he was trying to be funny; it didn't work.

"BUT IT'S A LITTLE GIRL!" Hirano responded with a surprising amount of seriousness and outrage at Takashi's apathetic tone. "YOU GO GET HER." He practically ordered Takashi.

Once that was stated, things were in motion and moving very quickly with Komuro getting himself "geared up" and armed with his crowbar that Saya had given him and the Airlight provided by Rei once he was outside with the bike. "I'll go with you." Raizen said, joining them outside. He didn't like this much more than Hirano had and realized that they had to do something.

"You don't have to. I can handle this alone." Takashi replied as he got on the bike. "Stay here and help the others."

"Fine, but I'll help cover you from here." Raizen said as Takashi started the bike up and got up on the wall, once he got on a solid column with a good line of sight he gave them the thumbs up. Once Takashi got moving, Hirano was picking off "them" as they were blocking the path toward the girl while Raizen was keeping aiding from his angle on ones Hirano couldn't pop from his positon due to elevation. At the point when Takashi got inside, the two shooters couldn't provide any further help once the gate closed and "they" began to swarm around it thanks to the little girl's sobbing.

The girls were making good time in gathering supplies as well since they were unmolested due to the little girl being louder and more consistent than the gunshots had been and thus had pulled all the undead attention on them for the moment. "We'd better hurry, it's starting to look pretty ugly down there..." Raizen said form where he was. "Too bad we didn't find any frags in there or something explosive... Wait... Hirano!" he called up.

"Yeah?" he asked between shots.

"Is there enough extra refilling powder and a metal container to make a rudiementary frag grenade?" he asked.

"No. but it is a good idea to think about later on." Hirano called back as they marshalled what they could and Saya signalling their sniper to get it on down there. Raizen would keep an eye out in the immediately area since Hirano couldn't from the balcony. "go ahead and load up the humvee. I'll cover you guys from here." He said to them

"Just be quiet about it." Saya said, referring to the loading of the vehicle.

Once they were ready to go, everyone piled in and Raizen cleared out the few of "them" that were nearby and hopped over to the roof of the humvee and slipped in through the turret hatch in the roof of the vehicle. Around that time, Takashi had noticed he could literally go above it all as long as he could keep his balance on the concrete yard walls and was headed in their direction. Man that took some balls of steel to do admittedly considering he was carryin the girl and the puppy. After a quick bit of banter and he was in; and as a whole; they were off to safety.

The armored vehicle would be a great place to rest for the tired out members of the group, Takashi and Raizen were the first to doze off. Komuro laying back against the seat. Raizen was laying back and leaning against the door, Hirano was soon out as well leaning agaist the back of the driver's seat. But with how little physical exertion Hirano had done, he'd been the first to wake up and was soon sitting on the roof of the hummer as it proceeded slowly across the river. They'd decided to try and ford it on the amphibious vehicle during the night; at least it would be safe there to allow those who needed it to rest.

Inside Rei had fallen asleep leaning against Takashi, looking all the world like she wanted to just hug on him and stay that way. But either hadn't had the will to act on it or was simply too tired to. Saeko had fallen asleep laying down but was using Raizen's lap as a pillow. All told, the four of them had had about what, three maybe four hours of sleep? That was probably the hardest commodity to get now was a safe place to do that. Rei and Takashi were the first to wake up, namely from Rei prodding him with her elbow to wake him up after a moment of thinking it looked cute. Raizen and Saeko were the last two to wake up with he rbeing a little embarrassed about the fact she'd been drooling in her sleep. At least she was relaxed enough to have that deep a sleep.

In about another hour or two; due to the slow water-speed of rthe humvee, they'd reach the far side. Oddly it seemed like none of "them" were around, it was actually quiet. And things all looked to be in their proper places; like it was just another day. The guys would soon end up busy rearming themselves and reloading the firearms that'd been used in the previous night.

"Talk about a crazy night..." Raizen muttered.

"Seriously, just when it looked like we'd be able to actually get a decent nights' rest." Takashi agreed.

"But dude, seriously, that was pretty gutsy walking the fence like that with teh girl and the dog..." Hirano said, smirking a bit at Takashi.

"I guess you just gotta do what ya gotta do... good thing the top of the fence was wide enough to walk on..." Raizen laughed.

"Thank Alice, she's the one who pointed it out." Takashi mutterred, a little embarrassed about it.

"Hirano man, that training you did with Blackwater really paid off. I guess we all know who to ask for lessons in shooting and gun handling." Raizen smirked at HIrano, whom just flushed a bit at the praise. It wasn't something he got open praise for in the past and it was still somewhat new to him.

Before they could get any further with their mutual back-patting, which was serving to keep their spirits up Rei would announce that they were finished changing. The guys all turned to see what she meant and quite literally just gawked for a few moments. They all just looked so damn good in those outfits since what they had just plain seemed to suit them. The direct attention made the girls blush a little bit until Saya pretty much demanded they keep moving.

Once they were all done, they'd have to bring the hummer up the embankment, which almost got Hirano crushed by Shizuka's driving; but luckily that wouldn't be the case. There'd he a little more time for a rest while everything quiet but there would always be someone looking ahead and around. Soon Saya was giving directions through the streets to head for her house since it was the closest. They were attempting to avoid as many groups of undead as they could; but it wouldn't do any good because they'd eventually run through a group of them.

With the hummer sliding on gore, they'd hit sidelong into a wirebarrier and came to what would amount to a screeching halt. With Rei being bucked from the roof and injuring herself in the bounce then impact on the asphalt, Takashi had jumped off to try and cover her with the shotgun and wasn't having much luck until Hirano popped up through the hole in the roof and provided both coverfire and shouted directions on the shotgun's use.

"Boy what I'd give for some frags..." Raizen said, getting up on the roof with Hirano and using the handgun he'd found to pop "them" as well. Trying to make every shot count by following Hirano's example and trying for headshots. The pistol rounds were more actually more plentiful than the rifle ammo as they were simply easier to get and use but were less powerful and thus effective.

"They'd probably just hurt Miyamoto and Komuro." The lead gunman disagreed about the frags.

"You know, we could just use the hummer to jump the barrier..." Raizen pointed out.

"But they can't, and we have to stick together." Another disagreement.

"Shit, if we can just keep them off of them for long enough to help her up and over... but they just keep coming!" With that Saeko would climb up and out of the vehicle and began to smash the walkin corpses once Takashi spilled his shotgun rounds.

"I'l cover you, but you better move like you've got a fucking purpose!" Saeko barked at him as she did.

Despite the best efforts and Raizen giving up the use of the pistol once he burned through two full magazines and didn't want to waste the rest and got out to help Saeko. With things turning bad and the two melee users being the only two to get through the group and attempt to draw them away then escape on their own. They'd just end up cut off from the others regardless of what noises they made to draw attention. Luckily the others would be bailed out by a group of people wielding water cannons, revealing to be Takagi's mother and her group.

"They don't look like their from the fire department." Saeko said in a droll tone when she saw the group getting rescued. At least the dead weren't paying attention to them...yet.

"I don't think so either. If I remember right, I think that's Takagi's mom." Raizen replied.

"You know them?" Saeko asked.

"As much as anyone else." He shrugged, just as Saya was shouting to meet them at her house on the hill. Saeko didn't know the area but Raizen did and gestured to her. "Come on, I know the way there."

With the rest of the group safe, it was just the two of them now heading through the parking garage they were in. It was easy to avoid the undead in here with the fact they could use the architecture to do it. Any of them they did run into were easy to dispatch by knocking them off the railing and down to the floor below and such. For a good amount of time, the two of them were able to avoid the attention of "them". Though there was a few times were no amount of stealth or evasion would prevent conflict. Once again their styles and their differences being apparent but again neither would really notice.

Once they were able to have some downtime; they'd actually find a small shopping area with stores that hadn't been looted yet. Well it was as good a time as any to grab some supplies and they'd do just that; getting into the shops and grabbing what they could carry reasonably. Inside a sport equipment store they'd manage to find a couple packs to carry the stuff in without weighing them down too badly. One of their finds would be in the back of the same shop where Saeko would find a sort of buggy.

"Well. I suppose we've got a ride again." Raizen whistled once he saw it. "or we could take one of the motorcycles." He laughed. "I think this'll work." Checking it for keys and noticed it was fueled up and had extra stored in the back still with room for more. "You grab what you think we might need from here, I'll keep looing around as well to see if there's anything else."

"You sure you don't want to try it?" Tandem's Dangerous." Saeko asked, nodding to a poster of a man and woman riding a bike in that fashion.

He blushed for a moment. "And give you an opportunity to cop a feel?" Raizen grinned at her. "Not that I mind. I'd usually prefer to wait for the second date to do that." His grin turning mischievious or roguish.

Saeko perked a brow and had to momentarily stifle a laugh. "So this counts?"

He kept that grin for a moment. "Well..." he said and switched to a thoughtful, unreadable expression. "In my book? Yes, Yes it does."

She gave him a faintly surprised look at the naked interest inherent in that statement and began to blush a little as she turned and went to go find supplies.

Again Saeko had found a decent supply of practical items for use. Medical supplies were somewhat last on the list of importance because if they got injured in what they were doing no amount of medical bandaging would really help. Maybe somethin to cauterize wounds and destroy the infection before it spread; but that was impractical for the moment. Raizen found a three pack of multi-tools, he'd also find a rudimentary schematic for a pipebomb and several ingredients for one. For a second Raizen wondered why the hell the owners of the shop would have such a thing.

He decided not to give it further thought and stowed them in the pack he had. He also found a small amount of bolts for the crossbow they'd found at the apartment last night and grabbed those too but there weren't that many of them. But then he spotted a jewel of a weapon he really preferred; a modular recurve longbow and a quiver filled with hunting arrows. Someone must've customed ordered it for hunting as it was fully ready to go and had a solid supply of arrows on hand. Oh well, first come first serve.

"Find anything?" Saeko asked as she came back into the garage.

"A few things including multi-tools, bomb schematics and this." he showed her the bow and all that.

"That's right isn't it? I've seen you in the archery club back at school." Saeko tilted her head, remembering.

"Mmmhmm, but it's perfect for the situation since it's quiet and ammo can be custom made for it fairly easily. Just takes a little know-how." He grinned

"And the schematic?" she furrowed a brow, understanding the problems inherent in it.

"I don't really want to know. I just found it and some basic ingredients, short of pipes." He said with a shrug. "I think Hirano can probably figure out something."

"You have a point. Impressive." She smirked. "Let's go though before they figure out we're here." She refered to the walking dead outside.

Raizen laughed a little in agreement as they got the buggy going and the garage door open showing they had a clear exit. They'd make a clean departure since the dead hadn't realized they were there enough to surround the building, but clearly lacked that type of intelligence really. They'd make for the river again since they could ride along it at least a good distance toward Takagi's estate. Luckily they didn't have the just ride along the side of it, the buggy was amphibious as well.

But they'd have to try for a sandbar nearby since the dead were starting to show up but for the moment were easy to get away from. But the moment they hit the water, it washed over the both of them, drenching them both and before they could really pull it together to really deal with being wet, they managed to get to the sandbar.

"Sorry about tha..." Raizen said, glancing back at the now-wet Saeko. Whom was, for lack of a better term, exposed in the white uniform blouse. Now he was dumbfounded and found himself staring for a moment before shaking his head and turning bright red. He'd force his gaze to avert off her.

She'd blush as well and seemed to just handwave it with his eyes looking around for danger and her changing, they'd manage a little casual conversation. Even if it was a little awkard, all things considered. She was switching to a black tanktop they'd found in her size so that her white clothing could dry. He'd end up asking if she had a crush on anyone but would try to cancel his question when he realized how rude it sounded.

Apparently it was, she looked pained and didn't answer the question. A little bit after that, they'd end up out of gas for the moment in a park. It seemed that using it to swim like that burned through gas faster than road travel did. Unfortunately it was also filling up with "them". They'd have to refill the tank with one of the two tanks that were mounted on the framework over the back of the buggy. But one of them would need to buy them time and Saeko volunteered to buy that time.

"It won't take long, knock'em dead Saeko." Raizen encouraged her, vaulting out of the driver's seat and got the fuel canister. Saeko joined him while giving him a look of amusement at what he said before getting into her side of the deal.

What he saw next, out of the corner of his eye, would quite possibly be the most awesome display of martial skill ever. Saeko was smashing the "enemy" with a macabre grace, expertise that he could only envy. Raizen hadn't been in the Kendo club this year though he'd been in there the previous one. He hadn't been in long enough to develop that type of finesse and fludity in his movement which why he was more... elemental in comparison. But the tank would get filled pretty quickly, in less than a minute really once he undid the fashioner holding it to the rackand unscrewed the cap. But goddamn it felt like the longest 90 or so seconds in life life.

"Saeko! It's full!" He called over to her and spun about, using the empty 4 gallon tank to brain one of the undead that was too close for comfort. Saeko seemed to be off in her own little combative world. Her enthusiasm carrying through whas she was doing and unfortunately was tuning him out.

But in a few seconds more she'd seem to stop on a drime, frozen in place as a group of zombified children approached her. For a moment it seemed like the thought of doing them in was making her hesitate. Cursing, Raizen pulled out his own melee weapon to smash aside the zombies close to him to clear a path to her and realized he couldn't get there in time and instead produced the handgun and opened fire on the children zombies before they got to Saeko thankfully. Luckily handgun shots at this range were easy to make even on small targets without obstruction. He'd get behind he and grabbed her by the arm. "Come on!" he said, pulling her away until she got her head screwed back on. Once she had they were off again in a hurry.

To buy time he picked up the empty canister and hurled it over the zombies to smack into a sign nearby that rang out to distract them. It wouldn't do it for long, but it was long enough for them to escape in the buggy. It worked as well as could be expected, usin the ATV mode made it eaier to make progress since they didn't have to directly use roads to get to where they were going. They realized they could probably make it if they travelled throughout the night, but that was dangerous and they were both dead tired. They'd find an abandoned temple that didn't seem to have been mantained for a long time but was still stable.

To avoid making more sound than necessary, they'd get out and leave the buggy in neutral and pushed it so it was right up against the door of the temple. So they could use it as a battering ram and fast escape if they needed to. They were safe inside and Raizen would let Saeko sit down to rest as he got them situated for the night. But how she'd frozen up like that was bothering him, and he wanted to help but he'd have to ask about it.

"Saeko...are you alright? What happened back tehre? You froze up, couldn't handle the kids?" He asked as he got the candle lit to provide them a way to see in the darkened building. She didn't react to the question at first, staring off into space.

"Huh? Oh, no that's-" she hesitated. "- That's not it." she responded, looking up at him after it registered to her.

He tilted his head, making his white hair hang into his eyes for a moment, shadowing them in the gleam of the candle until he brushed them away- regarding her curiously. "You had me really worried." Raizen admitted to her. After a few more moments of collecting her thoughts, Saeko looked up at him again. Telling him her secret, her sadistic side, how she almost killed a man in self-defense. Admitting the fact she had control over someone else's life had given her such a rush.

Unusual for her, she became more and more unhinged as she answered his question from before about having a crush. "So that's your answer. How could someone like me deserve to love... to be loved?!" Saeko cackled in an almost crazed way, like she was totally losing it.

"Saeko! Calm down!" Everyone deserves it. I can relate to what you're saying. I'm like that too." he said, attempting to relate to her and help her.

The dark-haired swordswoman did calm down a little bit, but would reply in a similar fashion to before, just not as intense. "No. You became that way to survive. I've always been like this." She countered.

Seeing as he wasn't going to get anywhere with just words alone, Raizen reached out and took both of her hands and looked into her eyes. The sensation of making a connection in two direct ways seemed to calm her down. He could see it, she had such pretty eyes but so pained; so...lonely. "You and I have fought together, we've seen each other in action. You're not alone."

"But what about love, or even having a crush?" she asked, it seemed like that little fact still bothered her and clouded her thoughts.

"Well. I have a crush on you." Raizen blushed. "And right about now we need each other equally."

Saeko looked thunderstruck but the admission and reached up, stroking the side of his face in a tender gesture, brushing some of his hair outof his eyes. Staring at Raizen for a bit, then she snorted with slight laughter. "Kuh!" she finally smiled. "You...really mean that don't you?"

"Uh...what?" Raizen asked, now confused.

"Nothing..." She smiled mysteriously at him.

Displaying no real hesitation, Raizen had noticed how close they'd been drifting toward each other, ans pressed the rest of the way. He'd actually kiss her, softly, with tender affection. Saeko was completely taken by surprise, feelin that nobody would be interested in her after hearing that story. However, when he pulled back, she actually retaliated with a half-hearted slap across the face.

"Your first time. You need to do it like this." Saeko said, sliding he arms around his neck and planted one on him in a much more serious way. The slap had been reflexive and perhaps more of her "dark-side" showing itself. The slap was also more or less what he expected, but her kiss flattened him. Hitting him harder than any kendo attack she'd ever landed on him in club practice.

Then they'd get into a pushing match for dominance, the contact growing more heated the longer they pushed, and was having expected side effects of arousal on both sides. In minutes of "play" he'd win out, planting her on her back and looked down at her. In response she'd raise her hips up, flexing upward and used her legs to roll him over so she was ontop.

"Whoa! Ack." he let out in response, thinking he'd won out but got overturned so easily.

"Seems like you're being honest, youdo have a rather large crush." Saeko blushed, subconsciously pushing her hips down and gyrating them around a little against his bulging tent.

"I could say the same for you judging by the way your hips are moving." Raizen blushed at her, she only flushed more noticing what she was doing now as well.

It was in the heat of the moment, yes. But in a little more foreplay time, she'd accept it as truth on both sides. The act of pushing her virginal body down on his, but to avoid a loud noise from her at the penetration, he'd kiss her again, muffling her sounds of pleasure. Tumbling back and forth in terms of dominance, one moment Saeko was on top, bouncing her hips up and down; the next Raizen had her down, pumping deeply into her.

Of course, this would go on for a good amount of time, ending with the two of them laying on the floor of the temple snuggling in the afterglow. That was one hell of a way to calm down's nerves, and bring two lonely souls together. One hope was that nobody outside heard them, another might be that she wouldn't end up pregnant as a result.

"I wonder how many religious tenants we just violated...?" Raizen mused with a faint chuckle, looking up at the ceiling then to Saeko. Her eyes hidden by he rhair until she shifted to look at him.

"No clue, but it was fun..." she blushed, almost shy about it now.

He laughed softly at that, as she snuggled closer into him and giggled as well.

"Did you, mean what you said? About needing me...?" Saeko asked, honestly wanting to know despite what they'd just done. Sometimes a girl just wanted to hear it.

"I wouldn't have said it." He reassured her. "If I didn't mean it."

She seemed thoughtful at that, then she clung to him fiercely, not wanting to let go; not of the first person she knew could accept her..all of her.

-Meanwhile at Takagi's Estate-

"I hope those two will be alright." Shizuka said, having just finished applying medicine to Rei's injuries. The group had all gathered in the room Rei was stuck in to heal.

"Kyousei knows where I live so It shouldn't taken them long. But it's so late." Takagi replied, looking out the window and sighed a little, having been hoping they'd get there before it got dark.

"Well it IS dark out. They probably found somewhere to hole up until morning. They'll make it here tomorrow, if they're alright." Takashi shrugged.

"Don't talk like that. They're safe! I just know it." Alice chimed in optimistically.

Hirano ruffled her hair gently and smiled at her. "You're right Alice-chan. Those two are both skilled and resourceful enough to get here."

Rei was blushing at her own fantasy, wondering if those two were doin anything... else. "Do you think they are..." She trailed off.

"Huh?" Takashi blinked, looking over at her-clueless.

"Nah." Hirano said after a moment's thought. "That'd be a really bad idea given the situation we're all in."

The next morning would dawn clear and warm, the rising sun waking up the two in the temple up. Taking a few moments to fully get themselves up and organized, Raizen would finally notice the enshrined sword that'd been left there. Taking it off the stand, he'd unsheath it to see if it was real or not and if it held a blade.

"Hey Saeko, this one's real. You should take it with you." he said, offering it to her.

She was awake as well and had been poking around a little for anything useful in there but had turned up nothing save a few candles. When she heard him, she came over to accept it from him and examined it herself. "Thank you." she nodded. "I will." She looked squarely at him with a blush on her face, a small part of her mind thinking about another "sword" she liked.

After an awkard pause, the pair would carefully and quietly exit the building. Good, their ATV was still there-meaning that they could get there quickly or block a bottleneck to make it the rest of the way. But first, they'd have to clear their path, apparently the rustling of the leaves had drawn a small group of "them" there in the night. Despite Saeko's initial hestiation; she got right into it and put that sword to good use, clearing them out faster than before.

The razor sharp blade sliced off limbs and heads with great ease, Raizen wasn't as good since he just had a wooden sword that was only really good for crushing. But it would be just as effective at dealing with them, just not as fast as a real blade would be. "So what...that's 4 each?" He asked with a smirk.

Saeko laughed shortly. "Yeah I think so."

Due to having wheels, it wouldn't take them long to get to the Takagi estate. Though they'd have to ditch the ATV to block a barracade better, meaing they'd have to walk the rest of the way. They'd make it there carrying what they'd found along the way in the packs they were wearing now, and holding each other in an implied romantic fashion. Hirano had spotted them from a balcony through the binoculars and alerted the others to fact.

"Hey You're alright!" Alice said, running over and huging them both.

"Of course, did you really doubt us?" Raizen smiled at her.

Alice shook her head. "No! Never!" She smiled back at them.

Hirano came up with the others, gretting them and even congratulating them on survival. He would freak out a little though, noticing the new weapon Raizen was carrying. "Where'd you find that?"

"Sporting Goods." Raizen laughed. "I also brought you a couple things, can you make heads or tails of this?" he asked, rummaging in a side pack to hand Kouta the pipe bomb schematic and the small packets of ingredients. "I found them in the same place."

"Pipe bombs? How... " he blinked. "Yes I can do something with that! You have almost everything needed here except the pipes and fuse cords.." he cackled with joy.

~ An hour Later~

"So that's how you got through the night. Good thing you two found that temple. I nearly forgot about it being there." Saya admitted as she gave them the dime tour.

"Well, Yeah. Thought some of them still found us there." Raizen sighed. "so it wasn't a totally safe spot but then again is anywhere now?"

"They must've been in the area already, you did use a vehicle right?" She asked.

"Yeah I think they simply heard it idling or the wind blowing the leaves. Then moved toward the source of it throughout the night." he replied, Saeko had gone to clean herself up and change clothes so that hers could be cleaned while they were safe there for the time being. "Anyway, what's been going on here? Anything important happen?"

Saya sighed, rolling her eyes. "My parents are, of course, taking charge of this situation. It seems they plan to leave soon."

"Well once we regain our strength and restock supplies, we should too. But we should also try to enjoy this little bit of normalcy if we can. It may be the last time we get a chance to for a while." Raizen said, glancing out a window at the people moving stuff onto buses.

"We should tak to everyone else about it." Saya seemed to agree.

"Whelp you guys handle that. I really have to grab a shower or stand under a hose or something. I feel like I've been trudging through a dumpster." Raizen laughed.

Saya blushed momentarily at that. "Gross analogy. But I get it. After the first day I felt the same way." She pointed out the way to the shower room.

"Aww, Saya-chan you're blushing! I bet you're imagining me without these clothes on and all wet." Kyousei smirked, teasing her.

She turned darker and looked flustered. "NO! Don't flatter yourself!"

He laughed at that and headed in the direction she was pointing out, giving her a wave. He hadn't meant that seriously, but teasing Saya was fun. He passed by the others on his way, reassured by the fact nothing seemed out of place. Once in the shower room, he'd spot someone through the steamed up door to the hot tub, thinking nothing of it, Raizen stripped down and hopped into the shower itself. "Ugh man this feels good." He muttered as the hot water washed over him, carrying away what felt like a year's worth of dirt and grime.

"Huh? Who's there?" Saeko asked, coming out of the hot tub and looked over, using the door to hide herself for a moment.

"Saeko?!" He blushed, then again- not like he hadn't seen her way already.

"Rai-Raizen?" she blushed, the two separated by the stall parition.

"Feeling better?" he asked, referring to her breakdown and their subsequent 'healing'

She blushed again, having been losing the previous one. "Uh..yeah I do. Thank you." She replied softly. "Uhm for everything." A moment of awkward silence passed where both were watching each other.

"Uhm if you need it, I could wait." He muttered, meaning the shower.

She'd rather boldly step in with him at that point, pressing up against him bodily. "It's...better this way." she said. "You know, you really made me happy back there."

Raizen totally flushed now and looked into her eyes. "Well it's the truth." He responded, reaching up and stroking her wet hair out of her face. Kind words, tender contact, it seemed like those things rang bells in her for some reason.

For a few heart-pounding moments, it seemed like something would happen. The sparks flying between the two of them as they stood pressed against each other in the shower. Then, shouting and arguing rang out, breaking up the moment. Hurriedly- to avoid being found out- Saeko slid out of the stall and into the adjacent one. They both could tell what was going on, Say was fighting with her mom, judging by the voices.

It'd take both of them about twenty minutes to shower, Raizen remained inside to let her exit first, and would separate and dress separately. He'd head to the room they were allowed to use while they were there. AFter that point, they went on to go do what they'd normally do given the chance to relax. Raizen was outside, sporting a navy blue sleeveless shirt and uniform-type pants and combat boots; it was all he could find in his size. He was occupying himself by going through martial arts kata to practice with the wooden sword. Doing his best to perfect moves that would kill in single strikes against the living dead.

The way he was doing it wasn't one that took him all over the place in a localized area, but instead one that would carry him forward in a more fluid motion. Using what he already knew and combining it with the style he'd seen Saeko using. But he could sense someone watching him, that sixth sense people had for when that was going on. "Who's there?" he asked, turning in that direction.

"Wow you could tell like that?" Hirano asked, coming out from behind a tree. He wasn't sneaking, just didn't want to distract Raizen.

"Kind of. What's up man?" He asked, bouncing the wooden sword on his shoulder.

"Getting away from the shouting." Hirano sighed. "Anyway I can see that?" he asked, pointin to the bow that Raizen had set at the base of a tree.

"Huh? Oh sure go ahead." he said.

Hirano looked over at it, turning it over in his hands and examined every bit of it. "It's a composite type bow, modular. This had to be a custom job." He concluded, though he didn't know the precise model of it since this wasn't really his forte. "Did it come with arrows?" Raizen nodded in assent. "It's a good weapon, it's not as fast but it's pretty much silent."

"That's why I grabbed it. The quiver it came with had a full load, it also seemed to fit to add special arrowheads at the press of a button. Like it unscrews the default one and replaces it with a different one." Raizen said, pointing it out as he showed his friend.

"I've never heard of that before, might be useful later if you can find the right type of arrow to work with it." Hirano concluded. "I'm glad to see you though, Takashi's been waffling again. He doesn't know what to do. I think he wants to stay here. I...kind of do too." he admitted.

"They aren't going to stay, and I'm concerned for you guys' families." Raizen admitted.

"Ours? What about yours?" Kouta asked, sitting down where he was since they both were. "Aren't you worried?"

"No. I live alone in the dorms, or I did. The only family I have around is my aunt and uncle. And they were out of the city when this crap happened. I think they probably got away safe." Raizen concluded but he still worried about his mom and dad but there was no point in worrying about them since they were overseas at the time.

"Sorry... I didn' t mean to make you worry." HIrano said, noticing that worry.

"Nah, it's ok. Really though, with how they all are it taught me how to be self-sufficient for long periods of time. Well longer compared to regular students." The white-haired guy laughed a bit. "It also reinforced the point of trying to see things from a different angle and keep an eye out for things that make life easier."

The rest of the day would pass without much more incident with everyone going about business as normal; or as normal as possible. Everyone seeming to bond with each other; Rei trying to forge one with Takashi but Takashi seemed clueless. Hirano didn't seem to be too bothered with a romantic type of bond at the moment so he was trying to be the big brother to Alice instead. Saya was still too upset with her mom to really think about that sort of thing; Saeko and Raizen were trying to stay separate to keep what they had secret.

Hirano had moved to the garage to do some gun maintenance, keeping them clean and doing proper care. Takashi at that moment was helping Doctor Marikawa apply more medicine to Rei's back; much to Rei's discomfort. Raizen was still practicing and exercising the best he could to try and stay out of the grown-up's way while they were packing up and moving stuff around.

In a short time he'd finish with his exercise and headed back inside to see how the others were doing and possibly try to get a nap or something. But would stumble across Saeko in the blue kimono as he headed for the stairs and would find himself staring for a moment. "Whoa! Saeko..uhm.."

She blushed as well noticing the look. "What?" she asked.

"Uhm, it looks good on you.." He admitted. "Really good.. I mean er you look beautiful in it." He stammered a little, feeling stupid for saying it.

Saeko started to blush again at that, for a moment they'd remain like that. He'd noticed her expression and felt stupid again thinking maybe he boned it up. It was really strange considering what was going on behind the scenes; or maybe it was giving a new dimension?

"Tha-thank you." she smiled almost shyly at that. With nobody else around, they'd wind up spending the next few hours together. Not doing much other than really just ...talking, laughing and legitimately relaxing more so than before. Hell they didn't even break it up once night came on again, ending up out like lights in the same bed. As risque as it looked, nothing would go on other than that.

The next day, they'd be glad for it; since they'd all experience the return of Saya's father. One mountain of a man who took no crap from anyone. And all his "men" were all of similar disposition which would cause friction between the group and the adults. With the friction causing more conflicts outside and within the group, there was no seeming way to keep things together and they'd end up separated again. Saeko and Saya were out near the Koi pond arguing, albeit very subtly about what to do next; Takashi was doing his own thing and trying to stay out of the way, Raizen was watching what was going on trying to get a feel for it.

Hirano was having the worst time though, gathering up their weapons and trying to get them back to the hummer that'd been recovered, fixed up and refueled while they were at the estate. he'd run afoul of the extremists that seemed to have similar ideas and were attempting to take the weapons from him. And Hirano was having a hard time defending himself from them and keeping his hands, quite literally on the guns. With Hirano ending up surrounded by Takagi's right-hand men, he was starting to blubber a little bit, Raizen was the first to start over in that direction to help.

But before they could advance on Hirano to simply take the weapons by force, Raizen whipped out the bow and in very short order fired off three arrows arching over their heads to hit in front of the guys in front of Hirano. Which would stop them from advancing all together as Souichiro Takagi, Saya's dad would approach. "What the hell is going on?!" he demanded loudly, and would be informed of the situation in short order. At about that point Takashi would arrive as well to answer the big man's questions about what Hirano could do.

"He can protect your daughter sir." Komuro had answered the question, only to get recognized for who he was and had to give a slight explanation.

Raizen came up as well to Hirano's side as Alice showed up and hugged on him, offering him a hand up. "Some adults you guys are..." he said, glaring up at the followers that'd been threatening Kouta. "Wanting to take away our only real means to defend ourselves." He said, admonishing them in such a way it actually made a couple of them ashamed.

At that point, everyone began to show up to lend a vocal hand of support for their friend that seemed to back the opposition off. It would seem that their resolve to protect one of their own even in the face of such intimidation would earn them all a greater measure of respect from the adults. Once things settled down, everyone would momentarily go off on their own to finish up what they were doing. Saeko got requested to meet with Takagi's father about something; Komuro, Hirano and Saya would go off to handle a favor that was asked of them.

Rei had go off with Marikawa again for another application of the medicine for her back. Alice having gone with one of the maids for a little snack, taking Zeke with her. Once again Raizen was left to his own devices, using the time to recollect the arrows that were sticking up out of the ground. He'd go off to have a look around at those schematics they found before to see if Hirano had made anything out of the yet, going to the garage where their gun otaku had been holed up since he got there. It seemed like they had a couple made but that was it, the ingredients weren't there to make more than three it seemed.

What else was going on was Shizuka had met someone as well, with the medicine applied and Rei resting she was off on one of the balconies just having a look over the massive yard. "You look bored, what's wrong?" A young seeming man about her own age was coming up the outdoor stairs, wearing what looked like a police uniform with riot armor with a very large rifle slung across his back, but his bearing was more miitary than civilian police.

"Huh?" Shizuka blinked in surprise and turned to look and smiled in a friendly way. "I was just thinking."

"Ahh. About what?" he asked.

"I was just wondering if my find Rika is ok..." Shizuka said and gasped, catching herself. "I'm so sorry! My name's Marikawa Shizuka." she introduced herself and blushed for a moment.

He laughed a bit. "Aoyama Haitori." the young military officer replied. "What's her full name? I might know her, I was with the military until this happened."

"Minami Rika." She said, hoping that he really did know something about her.

"Hmm..." Haitori thought about it and shook his head. "Sorry. I don't know her, but I'll keep an ear out if I do hear anything. Promise." He smiled, trying to make her feel better; getting a good look at her and thought she was actually rather pretty.

"Thank you!" Shizuka smiled, but found herself checking him out in response. Haitori had medium length dark brown hair with blue-green eyes but the body armor concealing any other details. "What about you? Why're you up here?" she couldn't help but ask.

"My rounds, I suppose you could say. I like high places with a good field of view like this." He grinned. "That and the pretty blonde up here."

She blushed prettily at that and shook her head, embarrassed. "oh my..." she muttered, flustered. But she was pleased by that, being hit on by someone closer to her own age compared to the high school students she was teaming up with. Not that she disliked it, but it did leave her a little lonely without someone her own age to spend time with or talk to.

"I've got to get going though before I end up getting yelled at by someone for lollygagging or something. Everyone's moving stuff around here and keeping a patrolling security watch." Haitori sighed. "Or I'd stay a little longer... I'll find you if I got time before it's time to leave." he smiled and waved to her as he headed back down the stairs.

Raizen was off exercising again, wanting to keep in shape now that he felt better after a decent night's sleep the previous night and the quick nap he had. But he'd hear someone coming up from his side again, what was it with people and interrupting him?

"Serious about that aren't you?" A voice came, feminine and delicate. He glanced over to see it was Saya's mother Yuriko approaching.

"Oh Mrs. Takagi. Yeah, with all the stuff going on. It's best to try and stay in shape when one can." He replied.

She gave him an amused look. "Well it's good to see someone trying.." Yuriko paused for a moment. "It was pretty bold firing on them like that." She said, referring to the incident a few minutes ago.

"Oh? It seemed like the best way to make them stop for the moment." Raizen rubbed the back of his head, embarrassed.

"With no hesitation at all. Weren't you nervous?"

"Maybe a little but when it comes to my friends I see absolutely no reason to hold back if it means helping them out." He replied seriously.

"My, how courageous of you. Are you the leader of the group?" Yuriko asked, obviously curious.

"No, I'm not. We don't actually have a leader per se. We just work together to survive." Raizen replied.

"You should have one, or at least my husband thinks so. He wanted to meet that person later." Yuriko informed him.

"We'll have to see how that works out. More than likely It probably won't be me." He shrugged a bit in response. He didn't want that position as the leader, besides it didn't seem right. Why bother messing with what they had currently if it was working? In that moment, Alice would show up with Zeke to tell him that Takashi and the others were waiting for him in Rei's room. Wanting to talk about something it seemed, so saying bye to Saya's mom; he'd follow the girl and dog there.

In the room, Saya was insisting that they discuss what to do next seeing as things were accelerating and they'd have to decide now. There'd be a tense moment between her and Takashi when she started to lose her shit complaining about her parents seeming lack of concern for her before they got there. Komuro had a moment where he had to shake her out of it so she could think clearly again. But around that time as well, that snake Shidou showed up with his group of "followers" seeking asylum.

What happened next almost surprised them all with how Rei ran out despite her injuries. That medicine seemed to do the trick because she was moving as it wasn't bothering her at all. The confrontation between Shidou and Rei was tense, with him spouting off logic and words attempting to get into Rei's head. He was attempting to assert his need for control and manipulate her into doing something that'd haunt her for the rest of her days- to straight up murder him.

She seemed indecisive about it, like she desperately wanted to but really couldn't make herself go through with it. Around that point, Souichiro stepped in from the doors behind them with a line that seemed to just plain echo in everyone who was watching this going on. "Then Kill him." He gave Shidou a look that made the weaker man go very pale in terror; as if he pushed that button- the larger man would indeed off him. Rei would take the higher route and backed off, claiming that Shidou simply wasn't worth killing.

Though Raizen had made his decision, back in school; he'd had taken one of Shidou's classes and hated every moment of it. It always seemed like the weasel-like man always wanted to manipulate everyone around him like he had some kindof ulterior motive and tried to turn students on each other when people disagreed or argued with him. Raizen had the modular bow out and snapped a shot off, hitting Shidou in the left thigh, right through the meatiest part of the leg.

The sudden agony of it making the former teacher fall to his ass starting in shock at the trembling shaft protruding from his leg. The attack was so sudden that everyone was staring at him now with wide eyes, but Souichiro looked for a moment like he wanted to at least know the rationale behind it.

Raizen stalked over, putting the bow away and grasped the arrow and pulled on it a little. The arrowhead wasn't barbed so it wouldn't hook into anything coming out the way it went in. But it'd still hurt really bad, and he jerked it up and out then pulled Shidou up by the collar. "You're pathetic Shidou. You realize you can't win over her and then you try to goad her into something you damn well know would just cause problems given the situation." he growled, letting his annoyance flow out. He'd drop the man and put his heel into the wound and ground it sadistically.

"You were going on about how only the strong really need to survive in this new world. I can't argue that point but the evil you're carrying isn't what's necessary.." he said, getting some kind of sadistic pleasure from hearing the adult shouting in agony. "I wonder now how long you'll survive with that wound. Maybe you'll learn how weak you really are; you can't get what you want here." he growled and turned and headed back inside. He'd smirk faintly as Souichiro ordered his men to throw Shidou and his twisted students back onto the bus and practically shoved them out the front gate.

Takashi grabbed Raizen's arm for a moment, only to have it shaken away. "You actually shot him..." He said, horrified by it.

"Someone had to. We all were tired of his crap. You weren't there when he didn't do a very good job at concealing the fact he wanted to...well I'll tell you later." he said and continued on.

"That could be a fatal wound you realize... Given the situation." Saya muttered, trying to reason this out.

"So? World would be a less fucked up place if he does." Raizen growled and marched off out of their sight, not wanting to argue his point. He felt he was right and they couldn't say anythin to make him feel bad about it. "Come on, we got better things to do than argue that. I'm going to go get our things together.."

Souichiro seemed impressed by that but then again he believed that ends justified the means. Hirano was trying not to laugh a little at it all since he felt that Shidou had it coming too; he' d wanted to shoot the man as well. Saeko went after him, telling the others she might be able to get him to explain. What she really wanted to do was, well she didn't know but she just felt the pull or need to.

When she caught up with him, she grabbed him by the arm and stopped him. "Wait a second..." she said.

"? Saeko..." he paused glancing back at her and then toward the door seeing as the others weren't within sight, around the corner so to speak. "You're not going to criticize that are you?"

She shook her head and looked at him square. Her face stained red across her cheeks, just faintly though. "No I'm not. But well...that was very direct of you. But ...did you have to grind your heel in the wound?"

"Probably not. But I liked the sound of him in agony. Jerk had it coming." Raizen muttered. "I never claimed to be anyone's white knight."

Saeko went a little more red in understanding and nodded, silently agreeing with that. It was that subconscious attraction again, they were moving closer to each other again. She leaned up against him and it looked for a moment like they were going to kiss again since they'd both gone quiet for the moment. That's what would happen as well, both of them pulling each other close, tenderly as the passion expressed itself.

What they didn't notice was tht the others had come into the main hall now within sight of the two. Raizen and Saeko, obviously, were oblivious to their presence; their perception for the time being; was totally centered on each other.

"Oh..uhm..." Takashi stammered, frozen in place for a moment in surprise.

"So that's what's going on here..." Rei muttered and looked at Takashi for a moment, blushing herself. She quietly wanted Komuro to make that sort of move on her but wasn't holding her breath with how clueless he was about that kind of thing. Miyamoto was actually slightly jealous of what she was seeing but would grunt a bit in pain and drug herself back toward her room to lay down a little more.

Saya just blushed and let out a soft grunt as if she were about to say something, only to have her father lay a hand on her shoulder and shake his head no and then exited through a side door. She understood and even smiled after a moment and would wait.

Hirano averted his eyes and just grinned at that.

Shizuka ahemed a little bit. "Oh my should you do that here?"

That was when the "couple" jolted at the realization and took a step back and looked rather embarrassed and blushed, looking away. "Uhm...well..." they both muttered, not having an immediate response for the moment. But after a moment he winked to Saeko then turned to face the group as a whole. "Uhm... need something?" he asked.

"No no we were just going to get our things." Hirano said and hurried off to do that. Saya and Takashi would do the same thing, but Shizuka went off for a moment hoping to find Haitori; the soldier from before. She wanted to at least say goodbye since it seemed like they were leaving a little sooner than anticipated.

With Souichiro wanting a word with the group's leader; Takashi and Raizen would both go after a bit, agreeing it might be best. They were in the big man's office discussing future plans for the moment; Takashi talking about going to find their families then heading to the East Police Station to find out more about what was going on. He wanted to do that because they were all relatively close, Raizen had no such compunctions since his family wasn't in the area and didn't have much reason to go with.

"I'm here more or less on an educational trust fund. My parents are probably in Kyushu or the Chinese mainland by now. " Raizen sighed, a flash of a sort of tired loneliness showing for a moment.

"So what will you do then? You cannot remain here. Though, if you wish, you could leave with us." Takagi offered, seeing that he really didn't have a anywhere else to go and no reason to stay.

"Raizen..." Takashi said, but he'd get it too. Raizen had no reasonto stay with them after that point with security seemingly being offered.

"But what kind of man would I really be if I abandoned my friends?" The archer grinned and gave Takashi a thumbs up.

Komuro and Takagi would both look at him, surprised by his logic. Then Souichiro began to laugh, a deep hearty laugh of approval. Even thoughh it seemed like the group didn't have a leader yet, it didn't seem to matter for the time being.

Takashi grinned in relief and understood. "I'm glad to hear that." He finally said.

As it seemed, Takashi was the 'face" of the group or their representative. While Hirano and Kyousei (Raizen) were the 'second-in-command' types. Then again division didn't really matter, in fact it might cause problems later to divide up by abilities and the like. During the subsequenct downtime, the group got back together and made plans, decided on their direction and would gather any other last-minute supplies.

However, the shit would hit the fan very shortly after that with the EMP blast that totally annihilated the electronics. Without any form of cell phone connections, or electrical assistance; the group would have to adapt but Shizuka was still happy that for the moment before the blast she'd gotten ahold of Rika. It meant that her friend was alive and safe for the time being. The less experienced gun-users would need Hirano to teach them even moreso now, since they didn't have the computerized targetting assistance in their sights.

Luckily not all was totally lost, their hummer had been built and reinforced to block the EMP effects and would still run. They'd have to hurry load the humvee up since now the iron gate couldn't be electronically locked and held in place. With Souichiro's men doing their best to hold the gate shut against the increasing tide of "them"; the race was on. Shizuka and Alice were loading the vehicle up, but with Rei's back still aching; she'd pitch in on that instead of fighting.

The battle was turning desperate in way but at least they had explosives in the forms of TNT and molotov cocktails to take out groups of undead. But they didn't seem to just end, and soon the right wingers would decided to evac to the house next door that was still secure. But the main group were determined to leave and were holding their own at the garage to buy a little more time for the supplies to be loaded and the minor repairs to be done. "This is like the alamo" Hirano muttered.

"Not comforting!" Raizen sighed. "we're going to be screwed bad if this keeps up!"

"No shit. Goddamn these things don't give up!" Takashi replied.

Just in time, they'd hear the hummer roar to life again. "Get in!" Saya shouted, prompting the guys to do just that and slam the doors and lock them. Shizuka hitting the gas and gunning it, plowing the corpses under to escape, Getting sniper assistance from Haitori, whom was on the roof over the entryway. Using a Dragonov with high powered ammo, those sniper shots were practically making the zombies' heads explode in atrophied gore.

He hated to see Shizuka go like that as he wanted to get to know her better. But understood it was for the best; and with them out to safety, his new priority was to cover Souichiro and Yuriko whom were holding the rear while the others were helping the women and children to the house next door.

There was a reason why he was one of the best snipers in the military unit he was formerly a part of, before all this shit happened. And the Russian-made sniper rifle he had; the Dragonov was one of the most powerful convential sniper rifles in the world. Reliable and easy to maintain; compared to the more powerful but expensive and hard to maintain German-made PSG-1. He had outrageous range with that weapon and was using it to provide cover once the evacuation was nearly finished, allowing the Takagi's to escape as well. Then he himself would sprint over the roof once he put the weapon away and stowed the spare ammo and slid down the steep pitch of the roof and got into a tree and parkoured his way along the route to stay out of trouble until he reached the other house where everyone else was now.

He'd spot a generator shack just inside the wall and got inside to activate it to power up the emergency security system and then turned it on. Which would slam the iron gates shut and latched them securely and activated two small turrets mounted on the pillars on either side of the gate. They wouldn't last long but they should keep the numbers down at little as they were silenced as well.

Once inside he'd pause for a moment wiping his brow. "Phew. Everyone alright?" He asked the rest. He'd be praised by both Takagi's for his actions in literally being the last guy to leave the compound. "I also got the emergency generator going to power the gate and turrets for a while. It should buy us some time." he sighed in relief.

~Back with the main group~

Despite the hell breaking loose, the group managed to get away but concerns about those who were left behind were paramount for the first ten minutes or so. Everyone was at a loss for words for the time being, they didn't know what to think or do and silence reigned. Glancing back at Saya to see her reaction to it; given her parents were the ones that held the line so that they could get away and lookedl ike they got overwhelmed.

"Come on. Snap out of it. We can't all just slip into a fugue now." Raizen said, trying to get them up and thinking/active again. Only to get glared at by everyone who wasn't driving. Like he'd just said something offensive. Maybe he had but without the sense of connection the others had, Raizen could've easily overstepped some invisible line. Sure, the possibility that everyone back there could die was extremely high, they knew that the instant the gate broke.

"How can you even say that with a straight face?! Her parents and everyone else may not survive! Don't you get it?" Rei shouted at him suddenly. "I guess it doesn't bother you. You've already killed someone!" she continued. "Life must not mean much to you!"

Takashi, up front at that moment, grunted with a momentary look of guilt or regret at that.

"What's all this about?" Hirano blinked, Saya and Saeko looked over as well, curious. Saya didn't seem all that upset- like she understood and accepted it as the best option they had as it pertained to their harrowing escape.

"He Killed Hizashi!" Rei cried out, looking hurt and angry about it still. "While ie was still human!"

To their surprise and mild horror, he gave her a look that was only a degree or two warmer than the heart of a glacier. LIke he was going to say "Yeah, you keep bitching and you're next." He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair and looked out the window for a moment. "Yes I did." he admitted. "hoping that confirmation would shut her up.

"See! He admits that he's a killer." Rei shouted at him again.

"Because it was his final request either way. Or did you forget that Rei?" At that response, the others got it. It was really the only "human" thing to do at that time. Afterall, there was no coming back after getting bitten. Rei calmed down too, feeling a little ashamed. She wanted to argue still, she kind of didn't really like him because of that still.

"But do you feel anything? Don't you care? We're all going to check on our families, but you haven't said anything about it." Rei pushed on with a change of subject instead.

Zero (Raizen) Looked away, sighing. "It wouldn't do me any good. I couldn't contact or get to them anyway."

"Why?" Saya blinked.

"They're all overseas or evacuated by now." He informed her. "My mom and dad were overseas and my aunt and uncle are really paranoid and probably got out of town the instant this started going on."

"Sorry..." Rei changed her tune, sympathizing though.

"Don't be. One less family to worry about." Raizen shrugged. "and your parents will be fine Saya. I just know it." he said, wanting to offer her some kind of reassurance, which the other guys seemed to agree with.

"...Thank you..." Saya blushed a little, her expression softening a little. But it wasn' t personal really, she just felt better and was a little surprised to hear it.

Unfortunately their luck wouldn't hold out much longer, they'd just get to the freeway and realized it was totally blocked off by legions of "them". They'd been attracted by the frenzy of loud sounds at the estate and were just now reaching this area from travelling virtually all night again. It lookedl ike they'd either have to get through them and risk overturning the hummer or get out and walk. Either way they'd be fucked majorly if they got stuck there.

"...Tch, Dammit!" Takashi groaned.

"Sonuva!" Raizen growled. "Don't they know when to just stay put?" he lamented rhetorically.

Saya knew, then explained it to them. "it was the battle at the house. The noise must've echoed out all the way and attracted them in this direction. " she explained. "We can eithe rplow through them and risk getting stuck. Or we can ditch it and keep going... but where?"

"There." Saeko pointed. "there's a shopping center over there, we should be able to pull down security gates and all there. It'll be safe for a while at least." she said.

"I agree." Saya nodded. "Alright everyone. gather up what you can carry."

"Prioritize the ammo and weapons." Hirano insisted.

"The food we have is mostly in the backpacks there. And we can probaby find more in there." Raizen said. "that is if nobody else is there."

"Let's ditch this thing then." Takashi decided and that's what everyone would do, quickly pack out what they could carry and started off. But Raizen remained behind and sighed, he had an idea but did't like the idea of losing such a reliable vehicle. "I'll set this thing to use as a distraction." he said, grabbing a heavy chunk of concrete that'd broken off. HE climbd up and turned it on again and set it into drive and then dropped the block on the gas and quickly jumped out.

That would send the hummer careening down the freeway for quite a distance, plowing the dead under and leaving a long streak of gore in it's wake until it hit a turn in it almost a mil eand half away then exploded as the gas leaked out and the electrical systems sparked. It went up in a massive fireball of shrapnel that would take out the walkers in the area. The distraction would provide enough cover to the shopping center, dodging into it while they still had daylight.

It seemed like they weren't alone but wouldn't be harassed immediately since they had presence of mind to shut the security gates behind them and lock them down. Well the other group of survivors hadn't yet registered that they were there, giving them the chance to hide their supplies...just in case. Takashi and Hirano hiding the guns in, of all places, a bin full of oversized bras. The food supplies were also hidden but behind the counter of the food court's coffee shop area since it would just look like it was blending in there. Perhaps as a couple backpacks left by others that had evac'ed in a hurry.

Raizen coudn't help but chuckle at where the other guys had hidden the guns and other weapons. "Seriously guys? I suppose nobody would look there." He shook his head. "I hid the other things in a place they won't be noticed. But what do we do now?" He asked.

"I'm not entirely sure. I'd say to get a rest, this place seem secure enough at least for the time being." Takashi voted.

"We should look around for more supplies because we can't stay here forever." Hirano countered.

"Why not do both? There's alot of us here and we can all go check out various areas at the same time and ultimately sweep this place fairly quickly. But what worries me is the other group that's here, they aren't coming down here to us just yet. It probably won' t be long until they do. Or maybe they'll simply ignore us if we don't cause them trouble." Raizen shrugged a little and glanced up at the concourse to the level above them.

"We also need some wheels. I think there's a bike shop somewhere in here though." Hirano theorized.

In the end though, the group would actually take a break and relax for a while. Given what Hirano and Takashi were doing, Raizen would remain on the lower level and looked around for supplies they could use. But would keep away from any exit because being too loud near them might draw attention from outside due to the echo. Raizen sighed a bit and looked at himself in a mirror in one of the stores; still wearing what amounted to a school uniform still. Even though he did have a spare set in his pack, they hadn't had any chance to wash them now that the power was out.

Hopefully it wasn't the case everywhere, but there was no way to pinpoint where the nuke had actually gone off. And there was no point in worrying about it right now. He'd slide into a clothing store and would pick out a change to simply lose his previous outfit. Picking out a black tanktop with a durable cowboy duster and some combat boots that were comfortable with non-slip soles and weather/water resistant at the very least. "... Are you sure you really want to wear that?" He heard form behind him and spun about quickly, blushing. Even though he was currently shirtless having removed the tanktop to change it out for a different color one.

When he turned about, it was Rei; whom was giving him a disapproving look. "We leave you alone for ten minutes and you're already looting." she said in a disdainful tone.

"Well pardon me for not wanting to keep these school clothes. Damn things feel too binding..." Raizen grumbled at her.

"Trying to justify your thievery. Pathetic." Rei replied, there was a moment of tension between them. It seemed like she was picking at him, trying to cause a fight or something. To her, he seemed to be just a hanger-on; having not contributed enough in her eyes to deserve his place in the group.

"Oh shut up Miyamoto. What's your problem anyway? You've been on my ass from day one." Raizen shot back at her.

"Hmph after what you did to Hizashi I don't really like you or trust you. I don't see why the others do either." Rei retorted.

"Whatever Miyamoto." Raizen turned away from her and continued to look at his options.

"...But I do like what you did to Shidou, bastard had it coming." Rei finally said after a sigh.

"I know. Miyamoto, look, I know you probably don't really like me. But back at the school; I did what I thought was right. It seemed to be the best way to spare you from dealing with it and Takashi from facing the fact he'd have killed his best friend." Kyousei glanced back at her through the mirror. "I think it'd probably be better for us all for both of us to just let bygones be bygones. We need to stick together through all this if we want to survive. Whether you like me or not; I do trust you Miyamoto; as much as is reasonable."

Rei was actually at a loss for words, then started to think about it; realizing he was right. They did have to stick together, even with the world going to hell around them. Once you were alone in this new world; you were doomed. "I... uhm... " she muttered and fled at that point.

Once she exited his sight through the mirror by going around a corner, Kyousei shrugged. "That was kind of weird, but I suppose it would have to happen at some point." He said to himself and exited the store in his new outfit with his old one stashed until they could get it washed somehow. He wouldn't find much that was useful, the shops on the lower level had been ransacked already - probably by the group that was already there.

Due to there being a mattress store on the second level, the group in it's entirety would be able to sleep comfortably. Though most of the group slept separately, some of them paired off: namely with Alice cuddling up to Shizuka; Takashi with Rei even though Takashi didn't realize it; and Raizen with Saeko. It was rather funny considering Rei snuck into Takashi's bed with him in an clumsy attempt to forge some kind of bond. While they didn't do anything naughty, Saeko and Raizen were all cuddly with each other too.

Perhaps it was just natural, given the situation, that anyone would want to seek the comfort of the embrace of another person. But there were also predators based on that, just look at what Shidou had been trying to do on the bus.

The next day, Hirano and Saya were off looking in a second-floor grocery for supplies; but would be interrupted by one of the other group. Raizen didn't know about the rules that were in place but neither did anyone else really. Some of them sounded kind of stupid, the group seemed to be led by a policewoman named Asami; whom Hirano seemed to be friendly with. Then again Asami was easy to get along with, even if she was a bit of a bumbling inept - she did try her best.

Then there was the incident with one of the other group attempting to rape Shizuka while she slept. But that would be taken care of right fast by Hirano's ...direct approach; which ultimately seemed to get Asami smitten with him judging by how she watched him afterward.

"Well that's interesting." Raizen laughed a bit as Hirano made his way to the roof to scout a route out of the building.

"We found some bikes to get out of here." Saya and Rei said having taken Alice with them.

"That's good." Takashi said. "But we still need a route out of here with the least amount of them in the way. We're not too far from the East Police Station, maybe we should stop in there? There might be ammo for the guns and we can find out more about what's going on." He glanced at Rei, whom seemed happy by tha t at least since they'd be able to find out about her dad there.

While the group was making their preparations, resting up and gathering what they'd need. Haitori would become separated from the Takagi main group, he wanted to track down the kids. Being worried about them to a degree and the sheer numbers that the Takagi group was escorting was slowing them down toward an exit to the city. Diaz (Haitori) felt he could move around better and faster on his own or with a smaller group, that and he knew of several locations where he could secure better supplies. In his effort to get to them the Takagi couple couldn' wait and would effectively leave him behind; but Haitori was an elite military sniper; who could survive on his own even in these conditions for a while.

He moved discreetly through the city, using a silenced handgun to take down the corpses blocking his path and using routes tha tkept something solid between himself and them. Though getting into one of the Yakuza hideouts was a pain due to the high quality locks it had and Haitori's need to get through the doors quickly and quietly. But inside was a literal treasure trove of equipment, thankfully it seemed like this cache hadn' t been looted yet and the Yakuza didn't have the time to raid it either. Inside was a silencer for his dragonov, a custom-action package to improve it's reloading speed.

He'd also find a good stock of ammo, which he could quietly stash; as well as a few fragmentation grenades, best of all Illegal IED landmines. Those things would utterly blast the living hell out of anything that set them off, they could be set to be proximity triggered or pressure triggered. Once he gathered all he could, Haitori set off through the city to try and either catch up with the group of high schoolers or at least get somewhere he could keep an eye on them.

Haitori would get fairly close to where they were at the time, but would secure a three story building with a great overview area where he could set up a sniper nest. To do that, he'd shut any security gates he could find and would lock them down manually and barracade them the best he could without attracting alot of attention. In the end the entire first floor, at every entrance and staircase going up would be mined. Though he would set up an aisle that would lead up to the second floor that intruders would have to proceed single file through. He used stand up poles and "caution" tape to mark the safe passage that one could find even in the dark.

Lieutenant Aoyama had also found a way out on the second floor, a breezeway that connected to a parking garage. This entry point was also sealed with a security gate that Haitori locked down but rigged it with a quick release that could be triggered by a pressure plate that would release it in a hurry. He also set up other traps like planting c4 charges under the stairs up to the second floor that could be triggered using a detonater that'd been shielded from the EMP surge in a vault in the Yakuza cache. He also had a full idea where he'd go once he had to leave here. Lucky for him the vending machines on the second floor were refreshly restocked before this shit hapened.

It was eerie though, the place was abandoned; like it'd been closed when the world went to hell. But it was lucky for him, Haitori scoured the relatively small building top to bottom and only found ...well pretty much nothing useful save the location itself. But from the balcony on the third floor he could lead the group here and cover them the entire time. The third floor was actually just a rooftop balcony really tha thad a staircase leading up to it from the second level.

"It looks like everything's set here. But the question is..." Raizen was saying, having a chat with Saeko and Rei downstairs at the cafe while the others were dealing with the group upstairs. He was cut off when he saw Takashi, Hirano, Asami and one other guy coming down. "What's up? Why so serious?" he blinked, noticing their expressions.

"The old lady needs a specific type of medicine for a condition she has. According to Nurse Shizuka; we should be able to get a plasma transfusion for her at a nearby clinic." Takashi explained.

"You sure? That doesn't sound like that much of a good idea... Who knows if the place is overrun yet." Raizen muttered.

"Do you have any idea how stupid that is? What good would doing that do? You may get one bag of plasma for her, then what? The old man said that she needs them almost everyday!"  
Saya was trying to make them see how illogical it was for them to go.

"So what? We leave her at that?" Takashi snapped.

"One more day's better than nothing..." Hirano muttered, he wanted to help but Saya's loud tone had a bit of a cowing effect on Kouta.

They'd bicker back and forth for a little more before Saya's logic would be overruled and the group of 4 would go out for supplies anyway. Raizen had volunteered to go but they refused, saying that just the four of them would be more than enough; it wasn't that far afterall. He didn't like it but accepted as their collective decision. But once they exited the mall and their exit resecured, Raizen muttered. "I still don't like the idea."

"Not much we can do about now. As long as we keep those shutters down and the noise to a minimum we shouldn't have any problems." Saeko shrugged.

"It's the human thing to do isn't it?" Rei asked, giving her thoughts on it.

"I..I guess it is. If I was hurt or something; I suppose I'd hope someone would help me too...or at least put me out of my misery if I were bitten isntead." Saya was forced to agree.

There was an uncomfortable silence for a few moments, with only the sounds of the people upstairs heard. There was no telling how long the guys would take to get to the clinic and back. But Shizuka would come down to join them shortly after, brushing her blonde locks out of her face and sighed. "So how's she look?" Rei asked.

"Well, she'll be ok if they get that transfusion but after that, I don't know." The normally bubbly blonde responded, sounding a little depressed about it. Like the overall prognosis wasn't that good; given the environment that might be an understatement.

"Hey you're still helping her out, that has to count for something." Raizen tried to cheer her up.

"Yeah." Rei pitched in.

Another bout of uncomfortable silence that became awkward then just faded into something as if everyone was on bated breath. Though Alice would ride in on one of the small bikes. "hey everyone! Don't look like that! Everyone'll be ok!" she smiled; as childish as it was- it was hard for everyone NOT to smile at that.

"By the way, you two looked awfully chummy last night..." Saya pointed out to both Saeko and Raizen; getting a dual perk of the brow. "Sharing the same bed. How naughty."

"Oh my." Shizuka blushed, then seemed to pause to think then went a little darker.

"We didn't do anything." Saeko responded first, pausing her polishing of her sword. But she had a bit of red staining her cheeks.

"It was just more comfortable that way. Hey why aren' t you calling Rei out on it? I saw her climb into bed with Takashi." Raizen smirked over at Miyamoto.

She immediately gulped and shook her hands trying to deflect attention away from the fact she got caught. "I...I just couldn't sleep." she attempted to cover herself, the smirked trying to turn it onto Saya. "Look at you. I think you're jealous."

"Jealous? Of you? Please." Takagi huffed, crossing her arms with a bit of a blush.

Oh, this was going to be one of THOSE conversations was it? Raizen tried to get up and slip away- hoping not to be noticed and drug into it. Saeko certainly didn't need him to help her here; given her personality. She wouldn't answer any of their prodding as it wasn't their business. Sidling away, out of their notice as the three girls bickered, very subtly for a few moments with Shizuka giggling a little at it all, reminding her of herself at that age.

He'd get her attention for a moment, pulling the nurse off to the side. "I was curious. With the mention of medical exams hanging over us. Shouldn't you give us basic ones at least?" he asked furrowing his brow.

"Maybe, but none of us is injured and nobody appears to be sick. Besides, I didn' t get alot of medicine from the school when we left, nor at my friend's." Shizuka replied after a moment of thought on the subject. "I wouldn't worry." she smiled in the end. "I'm just worried..."

"About what? But you just said..." Raizen blinked, crossing his arms and cocked a brow.

She waved her hands, blushing for a moment. "I'm concerned about my friend and someone I met at Takagi's..."

"Your friend is with the police right? Or was it military?" Raizen asked.

"The police, I think she's with a special unit or something." Shizuka blinked.

"Eh I'm sure she's fine then. Probably managed to get somewhere safer, I bet she'll try looking for us at some point though. She's probably worried about you." He said, trying to reassure her, it seemed like he was doing alot of that here. "And what's this about someone new? huh~?" he smirked

"One of Takagi's father's men. Or that's what he told me. I guess I'm just hoping he's ok." Shizuka scuffed her foot in the floor a little, almost like a shy schoolgirl talking about her crush. "Probably gone by now though." she sighed after a moment and for a split second- looked almost...lonely.

"Haha the nurse's got a crush!" Raizen couldn't help but prod her a little on it. "Well,, keep the faith?" he suggested. "sometimes the only thing we can hang onto is some kind of hope."

"You're right!" she brightened then headed off again beaming a little a more and collected Alice to go rummage through a few of the stores for stuff.

1 Hour later...

The guys and Asami would come back in a major hurry, with their party covered in blood and a few tears in the clothing. But with minus one member of their cadre, coming back as a trio. That surprised everyone as they came back in. Takashi looked angry; probably at himself. Hirano looked more stressed out then ever and Asami looked really sad but they got the plasama that Asami rushed up with Shizuka to administer to the elderly lady. Takashi and Hirano secluded themselves in what amounted to a conference room and a bit of arguing could be heard.

That got the group's attention and outside, the girls began to speculate on the condition of everyone after Asami went in. Raizen went into the room as well to try and calm things down; seemingly his lot here. Takashi was saying that there was more they could've done, but Hirano was countering with telling him how stupid it'd all been. Asami trying to play peacekeeper and settle them both down. Raizen got the lowdown on what happened, apparently the clinic was filled with "them" and the group got attacked once they got the transfusion bag and had lost their fourth man.

Takashi and Hirano were blaming themselves for the man's death; but Asami seemed to take it just as hard. Apparently she had to be the one to mercy kill the poor bastard.

"Ok ok Settle down! Fuck. Arguing like this isn't going to change what happened." Raizen tried to shoehorn in his two cents but for a moment it seemed like none of them were listening. ULtimately they'd come to some kind of silent agreement that it'd be best to just drop it for the time being.

That, however, was only the start of the shit-hitting-the-fan. Because once they came back apparently the door hadn't been latched completely and now they were under attack here. Luckily there were other ways out but Asami had gone into a panic and despair when she saw what happened to her mentor and superior. Instead of getting help, she' d gotten bitten and subsequently died...and came back.

"Call me stupid but maybe for a short time after they turn, they retain a very basic form of memory. We haven't been loud here and everything's been calm so why did she come back here?" Raizen got out.

"Maybe. But now's not the time." Saya replied as the effective stampede to escape the mall began. With the discovery of the weapons cache and supplies, the people nthat' dbeen there before tried to take it all for themselves- as predicted. But in the end the high school group forced them to back off but they worked together to try and clear a way out for them.

Once they got outside things went from shit to fuck pretty quickly with them attempting to corral the other survivors to safety but someof them not having any of it. Moving as a group with the less able members in the center of a pentagam formation the group proceeded out of the building heading in the direction of the east police station. With shots from guns ringing all around it was just bringing in more and more of "them." While they wouldn't get swamped if they kept moving, Asami- whom had decided to come with- went to help one of the others who'd been isolated got isolated herself and in danger.

For a moment it caused everyone to pause while Hirano grappled with himself, not wanting to mercy kill HER but knowing there was no other choice.

Haitori had been already up and perfecting his own defenses but also gathering more supplies in preparation to start moving. Having a feeling that it might be a good idea when he saw "them" starting to appear in greater numbers outside heading for a shopping center in the distance. "What's going on I wonder?" he mused quietly to himself and peered out over the balcony where he was watching. "Seems something is getting their attention." He thought to himself.

But he saw the people fleeing the center as well as the group of kids from the estate headin for the police station he could see a few blocks over from where he was. That was where they were going apparently; and he was in a position to best help them.

"Tsk tsk, naughty undead." he muttered and in quick succession made three shots with his sniper rifle.

Just as Hirano was about to pull the trigger, three gunshots rang out, suppressed enough that the direction couldn't be determined like that. But the shots lanced through the heads of the undead around Asami, taking out two or three at a time around her, outright makin their heads explode upon impact. Hirano capitalized on the sudden change, shooting mor of them to clear Asami a path back to them or at least off to the side so that she could.

"What the fuck?!" Takashi shouted in surprise at the sudden spray of gore.

"Don't think, just shoot!" Raizen reminded him, popping off with the handgun, puttin down a couple more.

Working as a team they did clear a route for Asami to safety with them again and hurried away.

Haitori, with his large amount of ammo continued to pick off targets to ensure their safety as they approached the building he was in. Due to it's barracades, they couldn't get in through the front. They'd have to go the station and double back if they wanted to go there. He knew he'd have to move now if he wanted to keep pace with them. While this location was safe for now; better to do it whil the undead were confused by all the new sounds. So once the kids were into safety, Haitori pulled in his weapon and hurried back inside so his shooting wouldn't pinpoint his position.

Though he'd get through, rounding up his supplies, disarming the mines and c4 and repacking them with extreme caution. There was no need to blow the stairs to escape; he could get away through the exit he'd prepared on the ground floor. He had no idea where they'd go next but he remembered hearing through his radio that there were searchers and other survivors out there. Specific items like radios and walkie talkies weren't fried by the EMP since they didn't rely on computer parts.

He was the one who radioed to the searchers that the mall the kids had come from contained survivors but didn't know how long they'd hold out ther on their own. Once he got a confirmation that they'd send in a chopper extraction; Haitori was off and moving again to keep watch.

Once the group got the East police station, they had to take a break; having almost run the entire way and carrying all their stuff had tired them out.

"Phew holy shit. Cardio people.." Raizen huffed, bent down and resting his forearms on his knees; a position that made his hair fall over his shoulders and face.

"Goddamn my lungs...burn..." Hirano cursed.

"Fuck...seriously. Everyone alright?" Takashi asked, the girls had carried lighter stuff and weren't as winded.

"Y-yeah we're fine.." Rei replied after a confirmatory nod from the others, Asami included.

"What the hell was that though?! " Saya demanded.

"Asa..."Asami started but suddenly hugged Hirano, making him blush. "OH thank you so much" she gushed, just plain happy to be alive. "Asami is sorry she said those hurtful things!"

"Hah.. hahaha." Raizen tried to laugh at Hirano's seeming sputter and loss for words.

"We were seriously lucky back there. But who was shooting, it wasn't any of us." Takashi said, straightening up again.

"I think... oh my god... I think it was him.." Shizuka blushed suddenly.

"Him who?" Saya turned to her, seeing as she was the only one who gave any kind of response to the inquiry.

"I met someone at your estate that said he was with the Police or something, he was carrying a very big rifle I remember." Shizuka responded, trying to remember. "He was really handsome though..." she muttered, that seeming to be what her mind focused on the most.

"A big rifle? What kind...er you describe it?" Hirano asked, curious now.

"More importantly what's prince charming's name?" Saya asked drolly. "Are you sure we can even trust this is the same person?"

Shizuka held out her hands giving an idea of the length of the gun she remembered as well as telling it had an scope on it and looked kind of heavy. "He said his name was Haitori." She replied as they kept going, heading for a possible safehouse for the night since they had to find one before the day ended; it was very hard to simply pick a place to "camp" with a good defensible point.

Though they wouldn't have to worry about that for long as the East Police Station was nearby and they'd manage to make it inside without much more trouble. Even the undead that'd been there before had been drawn out by Haitori earlier as he knew that's where they were headed. He'd even cleaned it out for them though he'd left the back doors to the office area and armory locked to keep them safe.

"Phew. We made it." Takashi panted, this whole day was just turning into one major suckfest in his eyes.

"Let's have a look inside." Hirano said.

"I'll try the door." Rei said and cautiously approached it, pulling on the handle slowly; then was relieved that the door didn't squeak or make any other noises. "I don't see anyone...or anything inside." She said.

"Then let's get in there and have a look around, Maybe there'll be some signs where survivors might be or where your parents are Rei." Takashi said, standing up again to lead the way. "Whoa holy shit. It looks like someone beat us here." He said, seeing the bodies of the undead all hauled off to one side so they were out of the way with various blood drag-marks on the floor.

"But who?" Hirano blinked as he came in.

"Survivors? Cops?" Saeko suggested as she looked in.

"Maybe. But with everything going on I doubt they'd have just left anyone here to deal with it." Rei replied as they poked through it.

"Hey On the front desk." Raizen said, noticing something glimmering and went over carefully. "Handgun clips and a set of keys." He said, takig the gun ammo as he was the only one with the handgun at the moment and tossed the keys to Takashi. "Try them on the door there that leads to the back offices."

"Yeah." Komuro replied and did that, hearing a satisfying click as the door creaked open slightly, making everyone wince then cautiously look around to see if anything heard it. Then when they felt it was safe, carefully peeked through it to see more undead bodies thoroughly dead. "Yeah someone was here, Recently."

"Maybe it was your friend Ms Marikawa." Rei smiled.

"Maybe... he knew where we'd be going. Maybe he came here to clear it out so we'd be safe!" she beamed, wanting to believe in a stroke of good luck for once.

"Let's keep looking around before we jump to any conclusions." Saeko replied, taking some of the wind of out of Shizuka's sails.

After a few moments of searching they'd find the armory and would have to drill the look to get in and would find a minor treasure trove of stuff they could use and more ammo for the guns luckily. And even a shotgun upgrade for Takashi, whom seemed to prefer the boomstick to anything else. "I'll take this." he said, hefting it up but as he set his previous one down, he had the moment to salute it for it's service.

"hah. I guess that'll appease the gun's spirit." Raizen smirked.

"Last thing we need are angry ghosts too." Takashi laughed.

Meanwhile, with the guys looting the armory, the girls found the office suite and were combing through it for stuff. "Action reports? Event reports..." Rei said, finding something.

"What?" Alice asked, coming over to look as did the other girls.

"They were trying to figure it out before the station was overrun. But..." she said looking around then spotted a message written into the white board. "I think they're trying to tell us to head to the elementary school a few blocks away. It seems there should be survivors there. Maybe even my parents!" Rei perked up.

"Good for you, maybe they will be." Saya nodded.

"Then that's where we should go." Saeko agred. "Wait, what's that?" she blinked spotting a sticky note stuck to the board too that Rei had missed in her general sweep. She pulled it off the board and read it. "It says that ' if you're reading this, you won't make it there by sunset. I've prepared a place for you to stay. Exit out the back and follow the directions listed here."

"That guy of your is wicked prepared ms Shizuka." Rei blinked.

"He's supposedly a special forces guy so this makes sense." Asami nodded. "We should follow those directions. He wouldn't lead us into danger. I think he cleared it out here so we'd find the stuff too."

"Sounds like you picked a real white knight...with a big gun." Saya smirkd at Shizuka.

"Oh dear don't talk like that!" The nurse blushed, waving her hands again. "I Just...like the guy but there's nothing between us!" she refuted though she was redfaced.

That just made the ladies smirk as the guys came back.

"You girls find anything interesting?" Takashi asked.

"Directions apparently. Seems like someone has a safe place for us prepared." Saya said.

"I...wouldn't trust it... " Hirano said, wary of this sudden positive upswing of things.

"Neither would I but if it's really safe, it might be our best bet." Raizen shook his head. "Let's jus tbe careful."

In the end, they'd decide collectively to heed the note and followed the directions provided and came across a half concealed door that was unlocked by able to be secured from the inside though it was dark as it was in the shadow of a building. "I'll go first." Raizen said, leading the way in with a flashlight he got from Rika's "It's ... an old convience store... looks like it's been closed for a while now though." he said, coming back out to them.

"Probably means there's a residence upstairs going by the way the other places in this area." Saya suggested.

"There." Raizen said, shining his light on a wall, seeing an arrow pointed upstairs marked in paint that lit up when light shined on it. It's a clear path up." He said, moving slowly to avoid obstacles.

Once they were upstairs and had the doors secured, a pressure plate triggered generator turned over and spun into life. Providing enough power to get two strategically placed lamps going to shine in the living room area and down the hall to bedrooms with placed mirrors. It also lit up the TV that was adjusted othe news channels provided by satellite feed from a dish attached to the house outside. People had probably been living here i the past but had fled when the pandemic hit or were simply out of town when it did.

Then on the center table was a small tape recorder with a sticky note saying "Play me." on it.

"Er...should we?" Raizen blinked after getting over being dumbstruck by it.

"Well we have power, it seems like and we'll at least have a safe place for the night." Takashi muttered.

"The Satellite feed's still working... we can keep track of what's going on." Hirano beamed, seeig the TV come on but muted with captions on instead.

"I think we should play it." Asami said. "There might be some kind of explanation."

"I agree. I'd like to know what this is about. It's got to be more than a stroke of goodluck." Saya muttered.

"Fine." Takashi said and clicked it on playing Haitori's voice.

 _"I know this seems too convienent to be real. But I assure you that you're safe here, I've cleared out all the dead from the area around that building and secured the downstairs entrances. I stayed here last night and I can promise you that the amenities still work after I reconnected the power to the generator, but the fuel in it won't last for more than a day or so. There's some food and drink in the cooler in there for you as well." *There's a pause and the sound of blinds shifting as if looking out of the window then the blinds shifting back and footsteps, minor clicking sounds.* "The message in the police department is likely to be true if the officers went there while they were still strong and there were fewer dead. So I so suggest you go there. I am sorry I can't be there with you now but I'll keep you safe until you can get there." *sound of one of the recliners shifting to the recline position.* "Now try to relax and get some sleep while you can. Before I go; I left a propane canister and a cooking set for you to use, It'd drain the generator too fast to use the microwave. I hope one of you knows how to use it." *clicks off*_

Shizuka stared at it for a moment, with her hand subconscious laying over her heart; feeling it pounding in her chest harder at hearing all that. A type of concern welling up inside of her as well as her optimism coming back. She truly believed it and thought it was a good thing. "I was right..I'm so glad." she said, sounding less bubbly and a little more serious.

"I guess we really are lucky." Saya couldn't help but let out a short laugh in her own relief.

At hearing the news of food in teh cooler, Hirano had gone and gotten it open and was shocked. "He wasn't kidding, there's alot of it in here for us!" He said. "And the cooking set too!" he laughed, pulling it out and putting it on the countertop.

"Here. Let me, I know how those things work." Raizen said, coming over to properly connect the fuel to the heating device. "Open that window over there Hirano." he said, pointing.

"Venilation, got it." he said and slid a nearby window open so the smoke and such had a place to get out through.

"It's a little dangerous using this things inside but we shouldn't have too much problem." Raizen said. "There should be a special set of pans for this thing too. Just be careful."

"Got it." Rei said, coming over ot look and help out as well. She'd find them nearby and handed them over. "At least we'll have a hot meal and warm beds tonight..." she sighed.

"But no real shower and I really want one..." Saya complained.

"He did say the amenities worked." Raizen laughed. "You might be able to. Try the faucet to see if the water's running."

"Ah gotcha." With a twist of a the kitchen's faucet, the water ran just as it should. "It works!" Rei grinned.

"Using the hot water might burn out the generator he hooked up faster so only those of us who feel they really really need one should use it." Hirano suggested.

With everything settled in and at least some kind of food being prepared; the group relaxed the best ways they could. Takashi and Hirano taking first watch through the windows overlooking the street; but it was eeriely quiet out there, nothing was going on. It really did seem like Haitori had indeed cleansed the area of the undead to make it safe for them. Rei was taking her turn in the shower alongside Saya, figuring that it'd be better if they went two at a time to conserve water. Alice was i the kitchen with Raizen, helping him do the cooking. Saeko was resting as well, just thankful to have a bit of downtime. Asami stayed close to Kouta, keeping watch with him.

'Sorry it's not fancy but I guess canned food is on the menu..." Raizen smirked, as Alice handed him a somewhat large can of beef stew to cook on the propane cooker. "you like that stuff Alice-chan?" he grinned.

"Yeah!" she beamed.

"Heh alright then, if you say so the others probably won't complain...much." he ruffled her hair gently when he could to show his appreciation.

"Want a hand?" Saeko asked, coming in, feeling a bit antsy.

"Nah I got this in hand. Unless you want to cook it, it's not much differnt than the stuff you made when we were at Rika's." he grinned.

"I'll pass." she made an amused face at him and went back to her chair.

Everyone had adjusted somewhat to the lack of actual stimulation from what they were used to doing to kill time. Besides, it didn't seem to matter as much anymore as they were all so worn out and just wanted to rest in safety. Shizuka was holding the tape recorder still as a tangible connection to the person that'd left it, hugging it to her when she thought nobody was looking.

The night would pass slowly, with little to do other than talk and listen to the satellite fed TV for events going on in the rest of the world; mostly panic and the military cracking down. Takashi and Hirano taking watch while letting the others rest, Raizen kept cooking and was soon finished. "Hey food's up you guys." He said, prompting them to get up and grab some of the disposable cups and utensils with the bowls they found in a cabinent. There were fruit pouch drinks and water in the cooler for them to drink and the group would get their fill.

Since Saya and Rei had partnered off to get a shower each, they'd come back after the others had finished. Alice was dozing on Shizuka's lap, which made her get up and carry her off to a bed in the backroom, lit by the mirror array that'd been set up. Being that Alice didn't need to sleep with anyone, Shizuka would come back after the girl had fallen asleep.

"So this is the first place we've come across that's actually safe." Takashi said, closing a blind. "I was skeptical at first but man it's good to be able to relax."

"Seriously, I feel like my legs are about to fall off." Hirano agreed, trading places with Asami whom insisted on keeping watch.

"Man, I'm glad we did; it'd be good to be able to sleep without worry." Raizen said, putting the stuff he'd used to cook away and started to wash them, didn't want the place to be overrun with bugs. They may have to come back sometime later perhaps.

Saeko glanced at him and smiled a little and gave him a sly wink. "those two are certainly taking a while."

"Should we check on them?" Shizuka asked glancing back at the shower room as Rei and Saya came out wrapped in towels. "Oh. there they are." she said.

"Ah that feels so much better." Rei said as she stretched out.

Saya glanced at the guys to see if they were looking and blushed. "We need new clothes again..." she said.

"Well maybe we can find some in a store or something." Raizen suggested.

"Probably better to wait until tomorrow..." Saya muttered, despite the assurances to the fact it was supposedly safe; she didn't want to take a chance.

Saeko gave her a smirk. "Yeah safer to wait until tomorrow."

The rest of the night would pass without incident, the relative silence of the atmosphere outside allowed the group to find actual restful sleep. Ever since the whole thing started; real sleep had been difficult to come by given how dangerous it really was to be offguard at night. There really weren't enough beds for everyone but the recliners available could be used as makeshift ones. For the most part, the guys simply let the girls have the first call of the beds to use; since the three of them were making rotating shifts to keep watch.

The next morning was clear and warm at least. Takashi would open the curtains and peered out and around, nudging the other two guys awake. "It looks like it's clear to leave whenever we're ready." He said.

"Should we wake the others up?" Hirano asked glancing back down the hallway to where the girls were asleep.

"I'd say we give them a little more time. While we can we should try to see if there's anything else we can use in the store below us. " Raizen shrugged and got up from where he was lounging in a chair going to go check on the generator's fuel level and winced a bit. There was a little less than anticipated and more than likely they wouldn't have enough for another night without having to get more. "Damn." he said.

"What's wrong?" Takashi asked, coming up behind him.

"Generator's almost out of fuel. We'll just have to move on now." Raizen sighed, raking his fingers through his hair.

"Well it was too good to be true to start with. We still should try to get to the elementary school we found directions to yesterday." Takashi replied, hoping that it was the same one his mother worked at and that it was really safe. Though he'd shake that gnawing worry away for a moment and continued down the stairs into the store and carefully looked around a corner to see how safe it was.

Luckily the locks had held and there was nobody else in the store, even if the area was clear of "them", there was always the chance looters would break in overnight looking for stuff. Being it was a convienence store there were a few things they could take if they felt like it; though not an entire lot though. Like the place had already been sacked and the less appealing options remained. But between them, the guys would dig up a couple boxes of protein bars or similar foods. They were perishable yes but the ones were still fresh and would provide the energy they'd need while they were at least.

"Find anything?" Hirano ask standing on the stairs.

"Not too terribly much but yeah. "Takashi said as they came back. The three guys would settle back in the chairs to quietly figure out what to do next and the route they could take. "If the school mentioned at the station is the same one my mom works at; I know the way there from here."

There was that moment of "And what if it isn't?" but that sort of thinking would simply get them nowhere. So instead, they'd let Takashi tell them the best way there and what he could remember about the buildings and routes there. But after about thirty or so minutes, Raizen got up a glanced back to the rooms; probably a good time to get them up and going. It woudn't take too much other than a few nudges. While unhappy about being woken up; the girls would all rise and wake up quickly enough.

Outside the store was eerily silent; though as a group- they were still on alert for wandering dea, though Shizuka was glancing up at the random buildings half hoping to see the person that'd set up that safehouse and left them the recorded message. Unfortunately for her; he wasn't around the area anymore having been up earlier and had moved on to clear the most likely route they'd take to get to the school. After a few blocks; they'd find themselves close to the destination they were looking for but things were never that easy- as just as it came into sight they'd hear several gunshots from nearby.

Shouts of alarm and screams of panic were also heard the closer they got whatever was going on. After turning a corner down an alley; they could see what it was. A group of survivors were trying to make it the school as well, escorted by someone in a police officer's uniform with a gun out ad opening fire on the dead that was drawing close or blockig the way. Given the fact that the alleyway was narrow; and they couldn't fan out to help, they'd burst into the scene intent to render aid but th ewoman with the gun finished off the last one. "Move people, keep going straight!" she'd order, the unarmed survivors taking off to follow that direction.

As it turned out, the woman directing the suvivors was Kiriko Miyamoto, Rei's mother; and despite the joy Rei felt; they had to hurry. "They" were making a presence again; spurring everyone to run for it. Kiriko gesturing them to go on ahead as she opened fire to cover their rear. Raizen would see coming up on Kiriko's blindspot and released an arrow from his bow and skewering the attacker, then the one behind it. "Come on, don't lag." he chuckled and kept going. Raizen would vault up a nearby fire-escape and began to pick off the walking dead from there with arrows. The bow was very powerful and was sending the arrows through the heads of the walkers.

He worked to keep ahead of the mob; parkouring over and worked to keep up with the group. They were also covered by Haitori, whom had found a good vantage point and was lining up shots and let rip with the powerful sniper rifle, blasting several of them. Once they got to the school; the group were panting a bit from the sprint down the road to the school and pushed the iron gates shut and sealed it. "Phew! Who knew they'd find us here." Raizen asked.

"Is everyone alright?" Raizen asked.

"Yeah. Everyone made it." came the responses from those involved. But Rei would glomp on her mother in joy to see her alright; lettin the two of them have their moment before they were introduced to Kiriko. Everyone being polite about it and nodded in acknowledgement when Kiriko greeted them in turn. She'd turn to Raizen as he put the modular longbow away and smirk a little "Nice illegal weapon." Kiriko said in her most cop-like voice.

"Oh come on, we're all carrying them, besides it's a survival situation; those type of laws are moot." Raizen replied confidently.

"Cute." She replied, smirking at the response. "But thank you for your help, you're an excellent shot with that."

"Lots of practice." Raizen smirked and leaned up against the wall as the others socialized and began to look about.

"I think this is my mom's school." Takashi said as he passed.

"Think she's here? If so you should go try to find her." Raizen encouraged him.

At that, Takashi would turn to Kiriko and ask if she'd seen his mother; and got directed toward the auditorium or cafeteria. The larger rooms that were able to be barracaded; though the school was fairly well protected with the exits sealed and the gates locked and secured. There was even electricity due to the huge emergency generators activating; which meant fresh flowing water and the like. The group would start to go off and explore the building though in pairs for the most part and kept the radioes Haitori had left for them in the apartment.

Raizen would take a bit of time to himself to check what he had on him; going into the faculty office and laid out what he had: the Bow, the quiver of arrows, the radio, a couple lighters, a machete, several canned foods in the backpack which also held a few more general goods for survival.

"Ah here you are..." A voice drifted through the open door as Saeko peered in. "What're you doing?" she blinked, noticing the items laid out on a desk.

"Oh Saeko. I'm going over the things I've picked up here and there for survival and all. I feel like a huge dork for knowing alot more than people think." Raizen laughed a little, gesturing for her to join him if she wanted.

"You only have two weapons in there? What happened to that pistol you had?" she asked, noticing it wasn't amongst the items.

"Oh I have it right here in the holster. I figure if I put that thing out, that cop we saw earlier might say something. I don't care what she'd say but I'd rather avoid dealing with it if I can." He said, digging in the pack for a momet, then into one of the side pockets and found what he was looking for and put a portable can opener on one of them. "I'm glad I thought to grab this thing at that store last night." He said.

"You look like you've got it all figured out." She smiled and came over next to him and hefted the bag she was carrying and set out what she had on a separate desk to take inventory as well. "I picked up a few things too, would any of it really help?" she asked, laying out a few protein and breakfast bars, a flashlight, a spare change of clothes she'd found that fit her and other small things.

"Yeah. I'd say you grabbed the important things. Most of all food, but modular stuff is the best which is why I grabbed the canned stuff; but it is somewhat heavy. Getting the bars was a good idea, cheap, light and they do what you need them to do." He smirked at her. "How're you holding up Saeko? It's been pretty stressful these last few days, running from one place to another."

She gave him a little smile, a faint blush crossing her face. His concern for her touched her and warmed her spirit- like even in this craziness he'd still be there for her. "Well we all finally got a good night's sleep last night, so I don't know about everyone else- but I feel better than I did." she said. "Though I wish the hot water hadn't run out before I could get a shower after the others." She sighed a bit.

"It's good to hear that. Things get easier once you have time to calm down and think. Rushing around without an idea of what to do is what got alot of people killed." He said, feeling sort of down about that but recovered. "By the way, you're really cute when you talk in your sleep." he said quietly, watching her with a small grin.

"!" Saeko blushed more and tried to hide her face. "Well you're awfully grabby when you sleep..." she said, trying to counter that.

"I used to toss and turn alot so it's hard to stop moving around but I'm getting it. Besides it felt good to hold you like that." He said and reached over and put his arm around her lower back and hugged her gently.

"Mmm." Saeko replied, leaning toward him slowly putting a bit of her weight on him and laid her head on his shoulder. "Well...uhm..." she muttered a little, embarrassed. "What'd I say?" she asked. "when I was sleeptalking.."

"Nothing embarrassing or something, I wouldn' t worry about it Saeko; I don' t remember the details of it anyway." Raizen replied, squeezing her closer with his arm a little.

She just hmm'd a little in response to it, seemingly enjoying the feeling of warmth that their closeness was creating. Not a sensual or sexual one- just a comforting sort of warm that was making her relax. Saeko was good at keeping herself calm, in stressful situations- but that was because she sublimated the more "energetic" emotions she felt in response. But at that moment, her heart pounded a bit harder in her chest but she felt no stress; she knew why but could hardly believe it. Did it really take such a short time? She glanced up at him with her blue eyes and went red faced for a moment.

"Raizen...thank you..." she said quietly and leaned up and ran her fingers through his white hair and pulled him down for a sweet little kiss.

"Mm?" he turned to her but was pleasantly surprised by what she had in mind and turned fully to embrace her in close to continue for a moment. "You're welcome...but for what...?" he asked, slightly confused.

"For being ...gentle...when you made me a woman..." Saeko replied in a low tone so nobody would overhear. "I know I was ...aggressive about it but you let me go at my pace and didn't try to force it..."

"Well, It was my first time too; to a degree I didn't know anything specific to do. I just knew that first time could've been painful for you and that motion would've just made it worse.." Raizen blushed brightly, the memory causing him to stiffen steadily as if the body was going "round 2!"

"It was fun though. I imagine there's other things we could try too. We just rolled around taking turns..." Saeko grinned at him a little. "You know...it is just you and me in here..." she said after noticing the mild tenting he had going.

"But anyone could just come in and see..." Raizen replied, glancing at the door.

"True and being on the bare floor or a desk might be uncomfortable. Maybe once we decide where to sleep." she winked, giving him another little kiss to encourage that thinking. She was getting turned on from the memory of that first time too, and she found herself wanting to do it again...soon.


	2. Chapter 2

While Raizen and Saeko were keeping each other occupied, the others were catching up with their missing family members in the case of Takashi and Rei. Takashi had lucked out and the elementary school his mother taught at had been fortified and was safe for them for a while. The building was still running on emergency power thanks to the large generators in the basement. Marikawa was occupying herself by giving the survivors checkups and ensuring that none had any bite wounds. It was truly fortunate that nobody there was infected; so other than a few small wounds from bruises to cuts gained in the frantic escape to get to the school; nobody was hurt.

Hirano was busying himself teaching Saya how to use the Luger PO8 her mother had given her when they had rushed away from that house. They'd found a place to do so and to avoid unnecessary sound, he'd be showing her how to use it with the weapon unloaded. Hirano was also insistent to teach her the proper gunhandling methods, something he'd been trying to impress upon everyone in the group. He lamented the fact that they didn't have enough time to sit down and learn what he had to teach.

"So we just have to hole up here and wait for the rescue team for a couple more days?" Takashi asked as Saya and Hirano came back from their lesson. Though he was talking to Rei and Kiriko, his own mother was busy keeping the young children calm.

"That's what the J-Alert said wasn't it?" Kiriko, Rei's mother; and police officer replied. "Then we sit tight, maintain our defense and wait."

Rei spotted her father coming down from checking on the generators in the basement. "Dad!" she jumped up and ran over to get caught up in her father's arms as they hugged. "I'm so glad you're ok!" she whined into his chest.

Kiriko would excuse herself to go greet her husband in a thoroughly affectionate manner. For everyone watching, it was a heartwarming sight to see; at least one family was together again.

Saya bit back an expression of bitterness upon seeing that and turned to her side. It hurt to see Rei reunited with her parents like that when she, Saya, was completely unsure of her own parent's fates. The last she'd seen they were about to be overrun by the walking corpses, the last thing Saya wanted to imagine was her proud father and mother shambling around as groaning undead. She forced a smile as she looked back over and let out a curt "It's good to see you all together again." in a clipped tone.

"Saya?" Takashi turned to her, hearing the bitterness in her tone. His eyes went downcast, remembering the situation Takagi was actually in. He actually understood why she was so bitter about it.

"Excuse me." Saya replied suddenly and marched from the room; she wanted to go for a walk through the school's hallways to try and calm herself down. At first it didn't really seem to go any good, but as she saw the childish things posted on the walls and the small memories of her own elementary days eventually made Saya smile a little.

She'd come across the room that Raizen and Saeko were in; though the door was cracked open only a little. Saya hadn't seen either for the half hour since they arrived and would start to push the door open but stopped suddenly. What she saw through the crack made her start to change her mind about interrupting them; the two of them were pressed close together and were obviously making out. Sure, it was rude to watch but Takagi found herself watching curiously still; she'd known since they were at her house that they were a couple. It sort of gave her a pang of envy; she'd found nobody to express that sort of emotion for her.

Saya had thought that Hirano was heading that way and found she actually kind of liked that idea; but since Asami had come along Hirano's attention had shifted pretty much entirely to the clumsy cop. It made her feel keenly alone for a little bit, her eye starting to turn more toward Takashi. They'd grown up together and she kind of thought that perhaps he'd pursue her, that had gone away when Rei showed up; but lately it seemed like Takashi really wasn't into Rei in that way. Perhaps Saya had a chance?

Back to what was going on, Saya found herself frozen in place as she continued to watch. She'd get a front row seat to what clearly was a sexual act; given how Saeko was moving to kneel down. The sounds coming out that room made Saya squirm and felt her nipples stiffening against the fabric of her shirt and her thighs press together. A few minutes would pass, and Saeko would stand back up wiping her lips a little before she'd get turned around and put up on the desk. Ultimately Saya couldn't withstand it anymore as they pulled in close together again and Saeko hooked both her arms and legs around Raizen's neck and waist.

The motion Saya could see, the sound and the energy coming out of that room would just make her flee. Her face was glowing like a red-hot piece of metal as she hurried down the hallway and turned a corner to run into Takashi; whom had gone to find her. He'd thump into Saya making him stagger back a step but would make Saya fall back.

"Saya? There you are. We were worried about you." He said, helping her to her feet and noticed how she was squirming and how she was trying to hide her face. "Takagi? What's wrong with you?" he asked.

She fidgeted a bit; she knew full-well what those other two were doing in that private room of theirs. "N-n-n-nothing!" she stammered a bit, embarrassed as hell. "What's going on back there? Did you figure out what you want to do?" she tried to change the subject.

Takashi just stared blankly at her for a moment before shrugging. "You're weird Takagi." he muttered. "And we wanted to have a chance to talk to everyone else about it. Have you seen Raizen and Saeko anywhere? They're the only ones missing."

Takagi jumped a bit, oh she'd seen them- more of them than she ever wanted to see! "I think they're in that room." She pointed to the cracked open door as she took a step back to see down the hallway she'd just come from. "I wouldn't go in there though."

"Why? What're they doing?" Takashi blinked.

Saya began to fidget again as her body flushed red and began to feel hot all over just thinking about it. "Nothing you need to see! Just let them have their privacy for a little bit." Saya pushed him back down the hall he came from. "Let's just go back to the cafeteria with everyone else and wait a little bit.

"Uh...ok...?" Takashi replied, sounding perplexed by Saya's fidgety behavior. Though, she'd always been a bit highstrung at times. As a result, Takashi didn't think anything else o fit and shrugged and headed back toward the large open room.

About forty-five minutes later, Raizen and Saeko would be dressed and recovering from their tryst. Saeko was feeling kittenish and was cuddling up against him as he sat on a desk, she didn't want to go anywhere or think about the overall situation; she just wanted to enjoy the feeling of warmth and peace she was experiencing. Raizen felt the same way; he held her close as she sat next to him and leaned heavily against his side. In a world gone to shit, it would seem like the two of them had found one person that brought out the best in them. The person they wanted to stay with no matter what happened.

"We should get back, before the others come looking for us..." Raizen finally said, nudging Saeko gently.

"I know, but just a little longer... please?" Saeko asked, turning her beautiful, clear blue eyes on him. She snuggled up against him a bit more, enjoying the aftersex glow. Though she'd see the point in it and pulled herself, reluctantly, off the desk and smoothed her hands down her skirt to straighten it. She'd also do a couple other things to try and give the outward look that nothing had transpired.

Raizen slid off the desk as well and stretched out a little and would pull his long white hair into a low ponytail. He couldn't help stare at her out of the corner of his eye, by every god that every lived; she was so beautiful. So vivacious. She was like the sword she wielded so expertly in some ways; lovely to look at but dangerous to touch if you reached for it in the wrong way.

They'd both be ready to go and would exit the room, staying close to each other but not so much as to trip. Reaching the cafeteria, they'd notice everyone's eyes turn on them as they entered the large room. Being waved over to the others of their group; the two of them would head over to join in the discussion of what was next.

Meanwhile, outside; Haitori was quietly making his way toward the school avoiding any encounters with the undead. His urban warfare training coming to the fore, he was very easily able to make his way past the corpses. He did, however, stick to the rooftops where he could, understanding that the undead couldn't manage stairs of any kind very well. Luckily the buildings were close enough together that he could make jumps from building to building. However, reaching the school meant crossing an exposed area without any sort of cover.

Haitori would get spotted by one of the watchouts on the roof and would have a gun trained on him for a few seconds. That was, until Haitori lifted up the powerful maglight he was carrying and quietly signaled with it to show he was alive. Instead the armed watcher would keep an eye around him, ready to open fire in case the undead got too close; again Haitori signalled with a quick side-to-side motion of the light to indicate a "no" message. He was doing well though; his sniper training on how to move from location to location stealthfully coming into play.

He'd make it to the gate and jumped and climbed over the barricade and vaulted over the closed gate to make it onto the school grounds. Haitori paused for a moment to take a breath and process everything, raking his fingers through his short oak brown hair. "That brings back memories, at least there's no sand and mortars landing nearby." He chuckled quietly as he pushed the door open and entered. "I suppose everyone would be in the largest open room." He said and headed down the hallway.

Haitori was quite strong for his 5'11" height, able to easily carry what had to be almost fourty-to-fifty pounds of equipment and supplies. He carried a loaded backpack that had a sternum strap and a waist strap to keep it secure; it also had side pouches for extra stuff. He was wearing a Makarov pistol on his thigh (in the specially made holster) as well as military surplus webbing under his jacket that held extra ammo as well as a proper ammo belt. On his back, secured under the backpack, was his baby- a fully upgraded Dragonov Sniper rifle fitted with a custom-made silencer. Carried in his hands but held relaxed at the moment was a well-maintained AK-74 carbine.

He carried quite a bit of Russian-made equipment, because it was simply easier to obtain; being former miiltary Haitori had been to the country in question and made some friends there that'd given him the weapons over the years as gifts. It paid to have friends that were as passionate about guns and history as you were when you needed the items. Sure, they cost alot and some major favors had to be called in but it was worth it. The ammo for the weapons was also very easy to obtain. Just raid any gun shop.

As he came into the caferia, nobody would pay much attention to him as he entered. He was naturally suppressing his presence to them by making his footfalls silent and the rustle of his weapons almost non-existent. "It's good to see you kids again." he finally said with a small chuckle as he approached the main group of Takashi, Rei, Saya and the others.

They all almost jumped at that; but Hirano did in fact jump to his feet pointing. "Those...wow..." he stammered. "Is that a Dragonov Sniper rifle?! An AK-47? You have a Makarov!" Hirano excitedly rambled.

Haitori was merely amused by Hirano's excitement and nodded. "You're right on all accounts except one." He said, removing the magazine from the carbine he held and ejected the round in the chamber and deftly caught it as popped out. He'd stash the items back into the ammo pouch he wore. "It's an AK-74." he replied and put it back into the holder attached to the webbing that crossed over his back.

"Wow, that pack looks overloaded, you got a kitchen sink in there or something?" Takashi laughed a bit.

"Not quite. Most of it is general supplies and a few extras." Haitori responded as he shrugged the pack off carefully and set it on the ground as he fell into a seat he pulled up behind himself. "Phew feels good to sit down. I've been on my feet for the last few hours. You kids are tough to keep up with when you're moving like you were."

"Wait, you've been following us? Since when?" Takashi blinked and perked a brow in a glance to Hirano, whom was all starry-eyed still.

"Did you enjoy the little apartment I prepared for you?" Haitori asked with a small grin, that was his response to the question.

"!" Takashi blinked

"It was nice to actually have a bath..." Rei commented as she came over. "Thanks for helping us so far."

"Oh! Before I forget..." Haitori stood back up and walked over to Saya, and looked at her squarely. "I have news about your parents."

Saya froze up and felt her breath catch in her throat at that, feeling the sensation of dread creeping up on her. She was afraid he'd deliver the news that her parents had died.

"Your parents made it out of the city and are setting a safe-zone for people to evacuate to. They got out a couple days after you kids left the estate." Haitori told her, hoping to offer reassurance and knowing how torn up she'd likely be about it.

She tried to take it stoically but she'd soon start to tear up and in a moment couldn't help but fling herself into his arms, crying in relief. She'd learned to be quieter when she broke down like she was; but the immense feeling of her relief rippled throughout the group; bringing smiles to them all. To Haitori though, it was awkward having her do that, and he didn't really have a reaction to it. Luckily, it wouldn't last too long before she pulled away and smiled again at him. "Thank you for telling me, that makes me feel so much better."

"You're welcome Takagi-san. They miss you and hope to see you soon. In fact, you likely will if you make the chopper lift out of here." Haitori explained and returned to his seat to rest and relax a little.

Shizuka wanted to jump up and just run over and hug on him when he showed up, but didn't. Showing a great deal of maturity; she stayed back, deciding that she'd do it in private so it wasn't as embarrassing. She did sit there and watch him interact with the young adults all around them. Shizuka would realize that he'd been serving as their guardian angel the whole time; recalling that moment where Asami was about to tell Hirano to shoot her when those three shots rang out- saving the klutzy cop. It'd been him the whole time; everytime they were about to run into a group of them; a very loud CLANG would ring out a good distance from them. Haitori had been shooting signs to pull the undead groups away from them to make getting to the school easier.

After a while; things were calm and people were breaking out old board games that the school had in storage to pass the time. With all the main entry points barricaded and secure; there was no need to stress out over being breached. However, they were taking turns patrolling the rooftop, accessible via a stairwell; the idea was to give forewarning if something would start to happen.

Haitori would be keeping an eye on everyone for the most part when the small SAT phone he had began to signal that he had an incoming communication. He'd step away from the highschooler group to speak quietly with the person contacting him. As they spoke, his expression would grow progressively more upset as they went on; when the communication ended, Haitori would bite back the urge to shout. Gesturing; he'd signal the group to come over since he had something to pass along, Rei's parents and remaining police would join them.

"What's wrong Haitori-san?" Shizuka asked, noticing his grave expression.

"I just heard from the SDF. They say they've only got the fuel left for a SINGLE rescue attempt here. They're sending a transport chopper escorted by a gunship." Haitori replied.

"That's good! That means we can finally get out of here." Takashi was growing excited in the relief of being able to escape.

"But there's something wrong..." Hirano cut in, noticing the grave air Haitori had.

"Indeed. They're only going to have room for a limited number of people, prioritizing the children that remain here and any of their parents. Which is about..." Haitori paused, counting. "About a 8-9 people. A transpot chopper can only carry just over a dozen or so safely, anything else may be too much for the chopper to carry." He explained.

"Which means, they're going to have to leave some of us behind." Kiriko said, stepping in.

Haitori nodded. "And they aren't going to be able to come back." He sighed, shaking his head.

"Anyone left behind can follow a path of flares they'll drop on the way here though to get back to where they launched from." Haitori explained. "So, you all need to decide who's going and who's going to stay."

"You should go Rei. You and Takashi-chan should go with his mother, your father and I can make it back if we're careful." Kiriko said.

"No! I don't want to leave you mom!" Rei replied immediately.

Takashi looked torn, he didn't want to leave his friends; but he also didn't want to leave his mother unprotected. They'd discuss amongst themselves for a while with no conclusions so far other than that the children and parents were going to be the first to board the evac chopper.

Oddly; as they were all pondering the development, Haitori had stood up and headed out of the room, saying he was getting cramp and needed to work it out.

"That is a problem." she said. "I'm going. My mom's right, my little adventure through the dead is done."

Takashi didn' t reply, still torn between going and staying; he was falling back into his pessmistic attitude. His thoughts going negative in that if he went with the adults; they'd just be putting themselves back under their directive like at the Takagi estate. "Rei!" he jolted out of his thoughts and looked at her, surprised.

Raizen looked at them sharply, his blue-lavender eyes were intense in their glare. "Search yourselves to figure out what you want to do or what you're looking for. " he wanted them to think and find the best answer for themselves.

Saya then looked torn as well, she wanted to go see her parents again; but she also didn't want to leave her friends. At that time, she couldn't make up her mind which was a better decision.

"I don't know what I want to do..." Takashi muttered.

At that point Haitori would return, oddly; his backpack looked like it was a bit lighter than it was when he left. "You're in no rush, they'll be here tomorrow, in the late morning though; so you have until then to decide." He put in his two cents.

"What about you?" Takashi turned to him.

"I made a promise to Takagi's parents that I'd see you kids make it back safe, so I'm staying if anyone of this group is." He explained. "Besides as long as I'm around; I can radio in with our location for a future pick up if they can find the resources."

"Then I'm staying too." Shizuka decided right there and then. The first man that had interest in her and wasn't a total punk, criminal or loser was going to stay? She didn't want to be separate from him again if she could avoid it.

"I think that's most of us other than Rei and Alice." Raizen said.

"Why her too?" Saya asked then had a lightbulb. "Because she's a child and she'd be one of the prioritized passsengers!"

"Exactly." Saeko nodded, having been quiet up to that point. Being one to quietly weigh the pros and cons of the decision; she'd kept her opinion to herself thus far.

"I've made my choice. I'm staying here." Raizen said, he'd already made his decision when they heard the options. He'd come with them this far; but now he knew where he had to go and why, he'd found an old picture of his grampa mixed in with some of the things he had on him from the school; sort of like a good luck charm. He hadnt' found it until he'd checked through his pack, it must've been in his jacket pocket before.

"Then I'm staying too." Saeko immediately replied, for her own reasons.

"Where will you go though? Just staying here is going to be impossible, those helicopters are going to make alot of noise." Kiriko asked, her eyes narrowing a little.

The others turned to Raizen, somewhat surprised that he'd made his mind up so quickly. They were also curious as to why he'd make a seemingly suicidal choice.

"I'm going to go rob a bank." Raizen joked. "No no, not literally." he said, seeing the surprise ripple through his friends. "I mean, there's something I need to get out of a safe deposit box, the bank's actually close to here." He explained.

"A bank? What in the world would be there that would help anyone now?!" Saya almost exclaimed loudly.

"He's an idiot, that's why." Rei muttered darkly, looking away.

Raizen cut a hard glare at Rei, tired of her constant bullshit and negative attitude. "My grandpa left something there. Something he always told us to get if the world went to hell and we survived the initial event." He sighed.

"Why in the world would he do that?" Kiriko blinked, her brow furrowing suspiciously.

"He used to be a military scientist and engineer. But he was also a doomsday prepper and pretty eccentric in his own way. He always told us the world would end but he'd be safe." Raizen shrugged.

"And you want to believe the rantings of a crazy old man?" Rei scoffed, arms crossed. She wanted no part of it, having made her choice to run away. It was almost as if since Takashi wasn't treating her like the princess she thought she was; she'd just say "screw you then." Rei had a major sense that she was only going along for her own safety and now that she had a way out; she was going to take it.

"Rei..." her mother said with a calm, even "mom" tone. "But it is a good point, there may be nothing there."

"Well we won't know until we see." Saeko smiled, stepping in to help.

Raizen thought for a few minutes, considering what he could remember; he remembered the location of the bank and the number of the security deposit box. The problem was that he didn't have any sort of key to it on him, but logic determined that there should be a spare at the location itself. And a bank was likely to be vacated by this point anyway, they were usually silent afterall. He raked his fingers through his hair and sighed, feeling how long it'd been getting. ~Damn, I should've gotten a hair cut before all this crap started. I may have to do it myself...~ He thought to himself as he felt how thick it was.

The group would separate and go their own ways for a bit, Takashi wanted to speak with his mom; Rei wanted to find out what her parents were going to do; Hirano still looked unsure of his thoughts and plans. In a few minutes, he'd approach Raizen and Saeko, having made up his mind and looked levelheaded.

"I'm going to go with you Raizen-san. I- don't want to risk losing who I've become again and I'm curious to see what you were talking about." Hirano said with a grin.

"I thought you would. After all, it's another reason to shoot some goddamn guns and feel the adrenaline pounding through your veins right?" Raizen laughed a bit, offering Hirano a high-five.

-SWACK!- Hirano met his own offered gesture with his own. "Damn right!" he cackled.

When the time came and the choppers swirled overhead- Takashi would say good bye to his mother, ultimately deciding that he'd rather stay with his friends. Rei, in her usual now bitchy manner, decided to leave with her dad and the other survivors. The group lost one member and gained one more, which made the going a bit more easy. Arisa/Alice had also boarded the chopper when the pilot said that her mom had been found at the survivor colony.

The predicted outcome was going on as well drawn by the sound of the choppers; the undead were steadily making their way toward the school as well. They had an escape route plotted that would take them out an emergency exit in the back; bein cautious not to draw attention to where they were; they'd all stealthily make it out. There was no time for discussion or further conversation since the undead were drawing in from all around.

"Here we are. Now which bank did you say it was?" Haitori asked Raizen.

"That way...Tokunosu Central Bank." He replied pointing it out since it had a distinctive steeple; it was once a church that'd fallen into disrepair and had been refurbished as a bank. Now it was visible from anywhere within about 4-5 city blocks.

"Good, now let's hurry." Haitori said with a particular sense of urgency that spurred the others into a hustle, as they knew that running may draw unwanted attention.

"Why?" Saya asked as they kept it up and turned a corner to take a short cut there.

"Because I planted Semtex on the school's structural supports." Haitori smirked.

"WHAT?!" Kiriko almost shouted in shock. "Where'd you get that?!"

"Yakuza cache I found." He replied with indifference.

"What were you going to do with it?" she asked.

"Use it to destroy access to a high perch if I found one but if I blow the school it'll collapse it and eliminate the undead drawn by the helicopters." he replied "A bit extreme but it'll work, and the sound will draw mor eto that location and away from us."

"Still...to use something like that in a city... in a school. Any other time you'd be a terrorist." Kiriko disapproved of this course of action.

"Yes. But this isn't that time now is it?" the military man replied tersely.

"Won't the blast wave hurt us too?" Saya asked.

"That's why we diverted course into the alley way." He replied. "that way it'll just blast along the street and eliminate any of the walkers that were coming from this way too. The blast is directly inward to implode it but the collapse will create a burst of debris and air pressure." He explained.

"That's...as smart as is it stupid.." Saya facepalmed. "Aright, wait how will it work? The computer chip in it should be...fried..." she said as it hit her. "Radio waves..."

"Let's get moving." Haitori said and clicked the detonator in his hand and threw it toward the school. Setting off a loud beeping, 2 minute countdown. "Move peole this isn't goin tobe pleasant in about 2 minutes." He said.

At this point; the group would take off running toward their destination, aiming to put as much distance between them and the school as possible. With as many obstacles as possible; luckily Tokonosu had small side streets and alleys they could use to quickly zig-zag their way out. Exactly two minutes later Haitori was the last to vault over a dividing barrier betwen back yards and pressed himself up gainst the leeward side, the others following the example.

The detonation was larger than expected and the elementary school went up in a loud blazing display of human ingenuity. Wiping out the undead that'd made their ways in and any in the major streets that lead there, leaving the broken structure to collapse with a massive wave of debris and air pressure; hence hiding behind the solid barrier. The wave, concentrated by the buildings would sweep them clean of the undead; the pressure crushing them as it smashed them against obstacles or just the air resistance itself.

"Now that was a fireworks display." Raizen chuckled, earning looks of "are you kidding?!" from the others at the sheer understatement of it.

"Great idea Haitori-san." Marikawa bubbled and impulsively gave him a hug, only to pull back just as suddenly, her face ablaze with embarrassment.

His was too for the second until Kiriko 'ahem'ed and directed them to continue. "Lead the way Raizen-san." she said.

"Oh..yeah.." He shook it off and headed down the alley again and came out about a block from the bank itself. "This way. And it looks like it worked, it's pretty clear aroun dhere but man look at all the bodies."

"Most likely looters that got caught up and swarmed." Saeko said, walking beside him as she'd tended to now.

"Shitty way to go..." Takashi commented as he poked at one with the barrel of the shotgun to make sure he was actually dead.

"Hey! This guy still had money on him!" Saya said, gesturing. "Er...but... I guess it doesn't mean anything now does it." she felt quite sheepish.

"I don't know, Grab it may be useful later." Hirano smirked, giving her a thumbs up.

The bank was predictably silent, there were only a few shamblers in there; but it looked like someone had held up there for a long time. Tables had been overturned and there were bulllet scorches in the walls and floor from ricochets. A few chairs had been burned for warmth it looked like as well, given the now-cold burn barrel nearby.

"Damn it looks like a warzone in here, I should know. I've been in a few." Haitori sighed as he quietly opened the doors and let them in, keeping the rifle on-hip fire position using the sling as he held the door to keep it from banging shut.

"I think some people must've holed up in here..." Saya said quietly as she looked about.

"We should be careful though. Some may've hidden in the vault if they cracked it open." Kiriko warned them in a low tone of voice.

"Then they'd suffocate, vault doors are usually air-tight." Marikawa said, having shifted to a sharper, more mature appearance and tone of voice; as if finding her confidence.

"Another shitty way to go out." Takashi commented and winced as Raizen vaulted over the desk, crashing through a pane of glass and quickly looked around. So far, so good; once they'd taken out the wandering undead nearby it was as eerie quiet as a graveyard.

"Now where is the vault key..." Raizen muttered, searching the counters, then sighed. "Damn locked." He muttered noticing the bank president's door was shut.

"Let me try." Saya said, kneeling down and pulling her hair out a bit to show she had a few hair pins. She'd attempt to use improvised lockpicks to get the door open. Cursing as she almost had it then the makeshift tools snapped off in her fingers. "Dammit!" she grumbled a bit loudly.

"Whelp. Gotta do this the hard way. TAkashi, Hirano give me a hand." Raizen said.

"What's up? Got an idea?" Hirano asked

"Yeah, we kick the door in. The lock isn't that good so it should break if we give it a few kicks." Raizen replied.

"Stupid." Saya rolled her eyes and searched around and found a key on a desk. "Or you can use this." she said and unlocked the door and went inside.

The guys looked at each other as if they were all just idiots for a second before shrugging it off and going in to search and soon found the key in the desk.

"Good. Let's get in there." Raizen said and went to the vault and blinked. it was already open? "looters..." He sighed and went in to see many of the security boxes broken out and the money gone for the most part.

"Damn it looks like people will just do whatever when shit hits the fan." Takashi said. He'd consider looting but a bank job was just too much; what good was it now after all?

"A hah! Here it is. Huh? What's this? Coordinates?" he blinked noticing a note that came with the key to something as well as a tablet that was biometrically locked until he touched it, activating it to scan his retina. "It's biometrically locked? Damn gramps, you were out of it." he sighed

"What's in it?" Saeko asked.

"A tablet, keys and a note of coordinates. I have no clue where that goes though." He replied.

"Well, we came this far; let's go find out." she smiled.

"Well they're boat keys or something to a marina." He held up the chain.

"So it's offshore?" she blinked.

"I'd assume so." Raizen shrugged a bit as he thought about it in the silence of the looted bank vault.

"That makes no sense. And it doesn't particularly help our situation." Saya sighed, palm to her face with her fingers laced into her hair. "While the idea of going to some island to get away is appealing; we don't know if it's spread over to them from people trying to get away after infection."

"That's true. Going to a place offshore may just isolate us with a bunch of undead walking around and if we ran out of gas getting there we'd be in trouble." Takashi mused, thinking about it.

"What do you guys think? I want to find out what this secret my seemingly crazy gramps left, but I won't force you to go if you think it's a bad idea." Raizen said, twirling the keys on his finger as he turned to them.

"You're not going without me." Saeko grinned tightly.

"Hmph, anything's better than staying in the city. I'm in." Takashi agreed, with his agreement the others more or less fell into agreemen as well as he was still largely the group's leader.

One may think the three adults would be more in that role; but Haitori saw himself more as just an observer and guardian of the kids than a leader. Kiriko wanted to see for herself what kind of decisions they'd make as a whole without parental interference -they'd done well so far afterall.- Shizuka just didn't have much of an opinion on it but was glad to go along nonetheless.


End file.
